{"id":20086,"date":"2020-02-27T15:13:24","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:13:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20086"},"modified":"2020-02-27T15:13:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:13:24","slug":"the-invisible-man-delivers-a-few-thrills-and-chills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20086","title":{"rendered":"THE INVISIBLE MAN Delivers a Few Thrills and Chills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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It has been 123 years H.G. Wells\u2019 The Invisible Man<\/em>\nhit bookshelves and 87 years since the first of many cinematic adaptations. The\nlatest arrives at theaters this week. It\u2019s an impossible task to outdo the\noriginal classic, so the newest version tries a different approach to the\nmaterial, focusing not so much on the titular character as it does a woman he\nhappens to be terrorizing. While not all of it works, the film makes an effort\nto distinguish itself and offers a few thrills and chills.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cecilia Kass (Elizabeth Moss) is the withdrawn and abused\nwife of obsessive optics genius Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Tired of\nhaving every aspect of her life controlled, she attempts to sneak away and\nstart a new life. Living as a recluse in the home of friend\/police detective James\nLanier (Aldis Hodge) and his daughter, Sydney (Storm Reid), Cecilia fears\nreprisals, but gets unexpected news that Adrian has died. The protagonist\u2019s\nacquaintances advise her to move on, but strange events begin to suggest that\nher past might still be with her, quite literally. Soon, the lead\u2019s personal\nlife begins to unravel as friends get frustrated when she becomes convinced\nthat an invisible Adrian is still alive and stalking her.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While this type of adaptation takes some of the fun away\nfrom the concept by seemingly ignoring the Adrian character and instead\nfocusing on the traumatized Cecilia, Moss gives it her all and the committed\nperformance will ultimately reel patient viewers in. The film teeters towards\nsilliness at several points, but the actress treats the material with the\nhighest regard. As her mental state deteriorates and everything about her new life\nstart begins to fall apart, one can really get a sense of the lasting effects\nof her traumatic relationship.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The technical skills on display are also impressive. There\nare a lot of long takes and wide shots used. Often, viewers see extended images\nof empty rooms, or of the protagonist staring out and suspecting that someone\nmight be there in the area. Some of these quiet, still moments do generate\ntension. And while not every jump scare works, there are a few scenes involving\nhousehold items being moved and sudden stings that are effective. Thankfully,\nwhen the action does arrive it\u2019s cleverly put together with impressively staged\nskirmishes. Extreme close-ups of the character\u2019s faces are also used during dramatic\nmoments and even elaborate attack sequences. It\u2019s entertaining to see the\ncamera tilting sideways at certain points when people fall to the ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, the movie isn\u2019t perfect. Frankly, it takes too\nlong to get going and one wishes that the antagonist was a little more involved\nin the proceedings. The story wants to keep things mysterious, but in doing so\nmakes Adrian little more than a one-note raging bully. This approach misses out\non getting in the diabolical head of the villain whom many in the film claim is\na genius. And while the action that occurs late in the movie is fun and exciting,\nthere are some logistical problems. Cecilia does strange things with important evidence,\nand one of the big sequences in which Adrian commits a number of assaults doesn\u2019t\ndraw the attention it should from authorities. Additionally, as Cecilia\u2019s\nsituation worsens and the police get involved, there is an interview that can\nonly be described as a conflict of interest for one of the participants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You certainly will need to give the movie some time to find its footing and forgive it for several lapses in logic. However, as a genre picture it does deliver a smattering of pulpy thrills along with some moments of drama depicting the struggles of being abused. And even if it doesn\u2019t all work, at least it attempts to give the transparent man concept something of a fresh spin. Compared with other scare fare out there like Fantasy Island<\/em>, you could do much worse. In the end, The Invisible Man<\/em> may not be as well remembered 90 years from now as the original film still is, but it also isn\u2019t as trivial or lightweight as it might otherwise have been.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been 123 years H.G. Wells\u2019 The Invisible Man hit bookshelves and 87 years since the first of many cinematic adaptations. The latest arrives at theaters this week. It\u2019s an impossible task to outdo the original classic, so the newest version tries a different approach to the material, focusing not so much on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,741,936,4486,6829,8771,9319,14186,15328,16846,19149,21131,21133,21134,21135],"class_list":["post-20086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-adaptation","tag-aldis-hodge","tag-classic-monster","tag-elizabeth-moss","tag-h-g-wells","tag-horror","tag-monster","tag-oliver-jackson-cohen","tag-remake","tag-storm-reid","tag-the-invisible-man","tag-the-invisible-man-film-review","tag-the-invisible-man-movie-review","tag-the-invisible-man-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}