Well, I’ve been had. That’s right, the marketing team behind the new film “The Invisible” really pulled one over on me.

Everything I saw or read about the film leading up to seeing it, including the film’s trailer, indicated that the movie told the story of Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin), a teenage boy who, after being attacked one night, is forced to solve the mystery of what happened to him in order to stay alive. Kind of a “Ghost” meets “Just Like Heaven” film where Nick’s undead spirit roams his former haunts, seeing and hearing everything he encounters, but invisible to the world around him.

In reality, this trite film tells the story of Nick being violently attacked by a female classmate, Annie (Margarita Levieva). Nick and Annie had an altercation the day before the attack and Annie has reason to believe Nick is the person responsible for turning her in to police after she robbed a jewelry store.

Ok, let me pause right here to tell you a little about Annie. She stalks around all day in black cargo pants, black boots, black hoodie and a black ski cap that she keeps over her luscious brown locks to keep her radiant beauty hidden, I’m talking movie star beauty (go figure). She’s a petty thief (at least until the jewelry store incident) who sells her illegally procured wares to classmates and, along with her two bumbling male sidekicks, threatens anyone who gets in her way. Oh, and she’s also dating an older guy who is on parole from prison.

When Nick’s best friend Pete is threatened by Annie and her crew, Pete gives her Nick’s name as the possible snitch. Now, I realize this makes no sense, especially since it was Annie’s boyfriend who ratted her out and not even Pete, but Pete knows that Nick is planning to fly to London that evening to participate in a summer program. Therefore he thinks there is nothing Annie can do, and gives up his friend.

And wouldn’t you know it? Nick changes his mind about leaving the country (only days before his graduation), and skips his evening flight. While walking down the street the gang comes up on Nick and after beating him black and blue (while his best friend watches from the car), Annie lands one final deadly blow to Nick.

Annie and the guys think Nick is dead and scramble to hide his body, enlisting the aid of Pete to drag him into the woods. Only Nick isn’t dead, not entirely anyway. But he will die if he can’t get the search party to find him, which poses a problem given that he is invisible to the living world.

As Nick’s spirit runs around town trying to figure out why Annie tried to kill him, and how he can lead rescue workers to his body, Nick learns a lot about the people in his life. He learns all about why Annie is such a lost soul and that his mother (Marcia Gay Harden) isn’t as cold hearted as he once thought.

What disappoints me most about the sheer stupidity of “The Invisible,” is that it had such potential to be good. The possibilities were there for an interesting and unique thriller. But the filmmakers didn’t put the effort in, and in the end Nick comes across as a self-centered, spoiled kid, and you don’t really care about his fate.

I’m completely willing to suspend my disbelief for movies with supernatural occurrences (i.e. a kid who has to save himself even though he’s invisible), but when the aspects of the movie that are supposed to be grounded in reality get lost in the clouds (a kid who doesn’t tell police, or anyone for that matter, where his best friend’s body is lying for fear he will be arrested) it loses all credibility with me. I won’t even get into the fact that Nick seems to fall for his victimizer during his journey back to life, puh-lease!

It’s also sad to see someone like Harden (an Oscar winner, I might add!) trade in her respect for a paycheck. Her one-dimensional character as the hard nosed, icy heart mother whose grief over her husband’s death blinds her to her son’s need for love falls well beyond flat.

“The Invisible” is a film that audiences will try to forget as soon as the credits roll. My recommendation is to let it be a Nick Powell in your list of movie views: unseen and unheard.

*

login to post comments