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The Invisible
I liked this more then I was expecting to. When I saw the trailer before it came out, I was hoping that the film would be good, but then it got rocked by reviews, so my expectations were lowered greatly for it. But when it came out on DVD and I could watch it cheaply, I knew that I had to, so I watched it. And I was very pleasently surprised by it.
The film seemed to often be very high handed. Just the attitude eminating from the film was that it was a film that was full of itself, and this was more then just the characters, who for the most part were full of themselves, but also in the way it was shot. However, because the characters were full of themselves, it made the high handedness of the movie correct for the film and it didn't detract as much as it typically would in a film that is full of itself.
The premise for the film was an interesting premise and I thought played out well in this film. The story, like most teenager based films, had its cliche moments and lines, but the characters in this film were enough to drive it past those points. The story is based off of a Swedish (I'm 95% sure it was Swedish) book and the idea/story has actually been made previously into a Swedish film. But the basis of the story hadn't been done in American cinema, and not having seen the Swedish film before, it was a pretty original idea, and portrayel of the idea.
But what really made this film were the characters. Yeah, they were full of themselves, but I think in some ways that is generally closer to reality simply for the area that they were living in, where there was a very varying demographic from the upper class to the lower class and how both of those classes looked at the other. The main character in the film, I would argue, isn't the most important, or the best character (or in reality the main character) in the film. Justin Chatwin does a good job of playing the "main character" in the film, but his role is really over shadowed by Margarita Levieva's performance in her role. Her character develops much more throughout the film, where as Chatwin's is generally more stagnent, and even though their is assumed change at the end, it doesn't feel like there is tons of notable change in his character. However, Levieva's character changes notably in her perception of how things are and who she is.
My biggest knock on this film is the use of music in the film. There are several scenes where the acting/dialogue and general feel of the scene are going to be enough to convey the emotion, however, the music is brought up to such a level that it is the dominant feature, or near the dominant feature in the scene for conveying the emotion, and it really becomes somewhat cliche at those points in time. However, this doesn't happen often enough to detract tons from the movie.
Also, this film has a "pseudo-Hollywood ending". It does somethings right, but this is generally only after it screws up in its ending by making it somewhat of a "Hollywood ending". Also, the final scene in the film is pretty "Hollywood", but it is simple enough that it doesn't detract too much from the previous work of the film.
Overall this is a film that has its faults, but it overcomes most of them with the story and the characters in the film. I have a feeling that it is a film that some will like a lot and that some won't like simply because some of the faults that I feel it overcomes, or work in the film, others will see as severally detracting from the film.
Overall Grade: B+
Acting: B-
Story: B+
Audio/Visual: C
I liked this more then I was expecting to. When I saw the trailer before it came out, I was hoping that the film would be good, but then it got rocked by reviews, so my expectations were lowered greatly for it. But when it came out on DVD and I could watch it cheaply, I knew that I had to, so I watched it. And I was very pleasently surprised by it.
The film seemed to often be very high handed. Just the attitude eminating from the film was that it was a film that was full of itself, and this was more then just the characters, who for the most part were full of themselves, but also in the way it was shot. However, because the characters were full of themselves, it made the high handedness of the movie correct for the film and it didn't detract as much as it typically would in a film that is full of itself.
The premise for the film was an interesting premise and I thought played out well in this film. The story, like most teenager based films, had its cliche moments and lines, but the characters in this film were enough to drive it past those points. The story is based off of a Swedish (I'm 95% sure it was Swedish) book and the idea/story has actually been made previously into a Swedish film. But the basis of the story hadn't been done in American cinema, and not having seen the Swedish film before, it was a pretty original idea, and portrayel of the idea.
But what really made this film were the characters. Yeah, they were full of themselves, but I think in some ways that is generally closer to reality simply for the area that they were living in, where there was a very varying demographic from the upper class to the lower class and how both of those classes looked at the other. The main character in the film, I would argue, isn't the most important, or the best character (or in reality the main character) in the film. Justin Chatwin does a good job of playing the "main character" in the film, but his role is really over shadowed by Margarita Levieva's performance in her role. Her character develops much more throughout the film, where as Chatwin's is generally more stagnent, and even though their is assumed change at the end, it doesn't feel like there is tons of notable change in his character. However, Levieva's character changes notably in her perception of how things are and who she is.
My biggest knock on this film is the use of music in the film. There are several scenes where the acting/dialogue and general feel of the scene are going to be enough to convey the emotion, however, the music is brought up to such a level that it is the dominant feature, or near the dominant feature in the scene for conveying the emotion, and it really becomes somewhat cliche at those points in time. However, this doesn't happen often enough to detract tons from the movie.
Also, this film has a "pseudo-Hollywood ending". It does somethings right, but this is generally only after it screws up in its ending by making it somewhat of a "Hollywood ending". Also, the final scene in the film is pretty "Hollywood", but it is simple enough that it doesn't detract too much from the previous work of the film.
Overall this is a film that has its faults, but it overcomes most of them with the story and the characters in the film. I have a feeling that it is a film that some will like a lot and that some won't like simply because some of the faults that I feel it overcomes, or work in the film, others will see as severally detracting from the film.
Overall Grade: B+
Acting: B-
Story: B+
Audio/Visual: C