Surprise!

Continuing my trip up The Guardian's Top 50 Movies of 2020...

#42 : The Invisible Man

An enterprising adaptation of the HG Wells classic, reconfigured for the #MeToo era by horror specialists Blumhouse. Elisabeth Moss is a woman who believes she is being stalked by her controlling boyfriend, who was thought to have killed himself.

Another film I'd heard of (and heard good things about) but had yet to see, so I was looking forward to watching it (even if these kind of films aren't normally my thing).  And you'd have to say it starts very suspensefully - pretty much 10 minutes passes before we have any actual dialogue but you know that something is most definitely up.

And to be fair, something stays most definitely up for most of the film - I can't really comment too much on what happens for most of it though without giving the game away (although I will tell you there's a man in it and invisibility also features).  It certainly has some truly unexpected moments in it though - there were several times I was completely thrown by what happened and it also has a very neat ending, which ties things up nicely in a way I didn't see coming.

The whole idea of transporting the concept into the #MeToo era is a particularly clever one and it's handled very well - the writers are to be commended for the job they've done with it.  It doesn't make "men" the enemy, but it does make "some men" the enemy and "some men" the enablers and, funnily enough, you can't second guess their behaviour or motives from just looking at them (if you can see them at all). Yes, some of the decisions she makes aren't exactly sensible, but that pretty much comes with the territory - and she's certainly not the dumb bimbo that films like this can suffer from.  It's also interesting because the most ordinary things like an empty chair take on so much more potential when the camera lingers on them, making you wonder whether there may or may not be someone sat in them/stood behind them/about to throw them across the room.  

As I mentioned previously, I'm generally not a huge fan of suspenseful scary films - they just play on my nerves, which I know is exactly what they're supposed to do, but I don't like it, OK?  However, this isn't only a suspenseful scary film (it gets a bit action-y at times), so for me it does just enough to be forgiven - although I realise that's exactly what some other people are going to love about it.  

The acting is good throughout - you know Elisabeth Moss is going to do both nervy and determined well, but she's ably supported by the rest of the cast (none of whom I recognised from anything else).  The plotting is a little slow at times - you often know that bad shit is going to start happening soon, but they certainly draw it out.  There were also times where I wondered whether I'd missed some important clues - it didn't help that a lot of it happened slowly in the dark!

The use of sound is particularly effective - obviously it helps when you're talking about an invisible man, but it's used well throughout the film.  The cinematography is generally fine, but when it steps up a gear, it really steps up a gear with some beautiful shots and some very effective suspenseful angles.  Overall, I liked the film more than I was expecting to - it's an interesting update which has been done well.

One final comment - The Invisible Man has a VERY nice house so there's some fine architecture porn in there if that's your thing!  Another character also has a nice house, but more impressive is his cleaner/decorator because various characters make a terrible mess of it at several points in the film, but it's always spotless the next time we visit it - wouldn't it be great to live in that world!

At the time of writing, the film isn't available "free" anywhere but can be rented on various channels - there are certainly worse things you could be spending your money watching if you like a spot of suspense in your films.

#43 - A surprisingly enjoyable experience