The Invisible, a remake of a 2002 Swedish film, is "Ghost" for teenagers. It has those "rules" that movies featuring those in the afterlife always have - you can't move anything physically; nobody can hear you. Of course, those rules are bent by the third act.
It's about a wealthy, smart, literary "golden boy" at a Seattle high school who is beaten to death by a girl thug and her gang of loan sharks just days before graduation. Disney's Hollywood Pictures released the movie without previews or much fanfare, almost understandable, given several risible moments in the third act that involve the ghost of Nick (Justin Chatwin) screaming at his mother (Marcia Gay Harden), Annie; his killer, (Margarita Levieva); cops; and others who might be able to solve this crime by finding his body. The moments are semi-intentionally funny because they can't see or hear him.
Nick's spirit follows Annie around, hoping for revenge, trying to help the police or his mom or friends put the pieces together. Then he gets to know her. He lost his dad years ago.
She lost her mom. She hates her father; he hates his mom. She's his mirror image.
His life worked out; hers didn't. It's not that he excuses her actions. Even the fact that she and her gang assaulted him by mistake doesn't let her off the hook.
Director David S. Goyer makes the movie a somber exercise in angst. He creates this marvelous arc for Nick, a pretentious, self-absorbed kid who learns how others see him, and how he should feel about his mother, only after he's gone.
Chatwin ("War of the Worlds") is nicely cast as the trophy son, the lad dressed to audition as the next alt-rock star. The slight Levieva is nobody's image of a tough girl. But she has the dead eyes and fearless physicality of a bully who doesn't care if she lives or dies.
She plays Annie as a girl who's capable of anything. Whatever faith the studio didn't have that they had something with merit and audience potential on their hands, "The Invisible" is one they shouldn't have tried to make disappear. THE INVISIBLE is directed by David S.
Goyer. Running time: 96 minutes. Rated PG-13 for violence, criminality, sensuality and language, all involving teens.
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