Krishna
The central role in the movie is that of Elizabeth Moss, who plays Cecilia Kass, the wife of a brilliant scientist Adrian Griffin. Even the titular villain is secondary to the story as the plot tightly follows, and revolves around, her. The one interesting tidbit is that she plays the mother of Homer Simpson Jr, the boy delivered by Simpson in an elevator – homer subsequently takes such a shine to the boy that he ignores his own children. Her other recent famous appearance is in The Handmaid’s Tale.
She has done well, but I cannot get used to the slightly crazed look she portrays throughout the movie. Yes, Cecelia is abused, as you learn later, and is terrified of her husband, but she acts as if she is half crazy most of the time. I don’t know, that takes away the sympathy factor for me.
The story is brilliantly told. Taut, straight narration, without a single frame more than what they need to tell you, it keeps your interest throughout.
One last factor, and we can move to the story itself. This is just based on the invisible man premise of HG Wells and has nothing to do with the classical story of the same name. They take the concept and spin a modern story suited to today’s time, completely disparate from the original classic.
And I don’t mean just a technology update. He is a brilliant scientist dealing in optics (and hence the possibility of invisibility – but don’t even get me started on the crude depiction of the invisibility suit and the scientific improbability of it) and they use cell phones and live in total modern luxury.
The movie starts well. We see her sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night – though she is totally inept at it, pausing to tell the dog ‘that she cannot take him along’ and kicking and making a ruckus, while the entire plan was to sneak away when the husband is asleep – helped by a sedative she had mixed in his drink.
Her sister comes and takes her away, but not before the husband sees all and nearly catches her at it. They escape by the proverbial skin of their teeth.
n the meanwhile, we learn that Adrian who wooed and married her, was very abusive to her and also would not let her separate from him when she proposed that idea.
She is stashed in the house of a policeman friend and her teenage daughter. Cecilia is afraid that the husband will find her no matter how well she is hiding and is even afraid to go out of the house to the post box. But one day, her sister turns up with the good news that her husband Adrian is dead that that Adrian’s brother, who was not on good terms with Adrian himself, has been named as the executor of the will.
Relieved that her nightmare is over, she gives her banking information for the transfer of the monthly proceeds, not realizing that she has given the one hint about her current whereabouts and strange things start happening. We see the knife she used to cut the vegetables suddenly disappear. She then faces a bizarre set of events, where her comforter is pulled off when she sleeps and when she tries to retrieve it, it will not move and what’s more, the shape of a shoeprint is on it briefly.
Also when she goes with her portfolio (she is an artist) to show an interviewer, she finds her briefcase empty. All this is a danger sign to her and she suspects that her husband is not dead and what is more, is stalking her invisibly. We also learn from her husband’s brother that Adrian was obsessed with getting her back because in his entire life, she was the only one who did not want him or his money and he can’t have that.
A number of thrilling instances follow where she finds that the stepdaughter of her friend suddenly slapped and the stepdaughter and the friend suspect her of violence and want her out of the house. Her sister slams the door on her as ‘she’ wrote an email to the sister accusing her of gold digging (with her).
Knowing that something is off, she discovers (when she suspects her of being stalked) with a judicious use of paint that her husband is stalking her in an invisibility suit. She then manages to escape from the house and in a cab goes back to her husband’s mansion. Accidentally, she discovers an invisibility suit he is making and stashes it away. As she is about to leave, an invisible man attacks her but her dog comes and intervenes, giving her time to escape.
She calls her sister to a restaurant to apologize but – let me not give all the spoiler details here – ends up in jail accused of murder.
How she fights an invisible enemy who is smart, has limitless resources and is invisible forms the rest of the story.
A great story but you can pick a million holes in it. She knows her husband faked her death but no explanation is given as to how. The only explanation is Cecelia’s statement that ‘He is very bright. He could fake his death easily’. Also the same explanation for ‘How he was found bound in his own basement’ when a man in an invisibility cloak was killed and turned out to be the ‘wrong man’.
For all that, the imagination is great and especially the visuals when the suit malfunctions is done very well.
The ending of how she outfoxes her opponent is also told well.
A good movie to watch if you are not worried about the scientific validity of the cloak and if you are willing to overlook events with no explanations.
6/10
- - Krishna