“Believe Women” has become a trendy phrase in online progressive and feminist circles during the #MeToo era, with the fallout of not taking women at their word about their experiences ranging from medical malpractice to a loss of workplace productivity. While society continues to make strides, abused persons still struggle to leave their situations and the circumstances of their abuse are still often called into question. In his newest effort, rising director Leigh Whannell provides his take on a classic film to explore the monsters among us and compare the invisibility of a legendary movie monster to the invisibility the abused often feel.
In Invisible Man, Cecilia Kass (Elizabeth Moss) is trapped in an abusive relationship with San Francisco technocrat Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) but finally plans her escape with help of her sister Emily (Harriet Dyer) and their childhood friend and police detective James (Aldis Hodge). Soon after, Adrian commits suicide, leaving Cecilia a sizable inheritance and, seemingly, peace. But after a series of bizarre experiences, Cecilia begins to suspect that Adrian is alive and has utilized his skill in optical technology to make himself appear invisible. With everyone else convinced she’s lost her mind, Cecilia must prove that Adrian still lives before he can ruin her life completely.
The Invisible Man takes the classic concept of a madman who has hidden himself from the world in order to wreck havoc upon it and flips it on its head; instead using the invisible, abusive partner as an allegory for how society ignores men who terrorize and brutalize women, pretending as if they aren’t there and no one can see what they are doing. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 percent of women and 14 percent of men will experience physical abuse from an intimate partner at some point during their lifetimes along with 33 percent of and nearly 17 percent of experiencing some form of sexual violence. While immense strides have been made in combating domestic violence and abuse, those who are being attacked in their homes still report feeling as if the abuse is something they should keep secret, a deeply personal issue they are left to face alone. These experiences mirror what we see Cecilia go through in the film; while she displays a sense of self-worth and determination that many other women are unable to in these circumstances, the invisibility that comes as a byproduct of being gaslit are on full display through her story.
While couched in a sci-fi thriller, Ceclia’s story speaks to a real issue of what abused women go through and how they are often received by a society that has yet to fully reckon with the realities of domestic abuse. As we’ve seen in a society besieged by random violence, intimate partner violence has implications not just for the abused, but many times for the surrounding community as well. More than half of all mass shootings in the United States from 2009-2017 an intimate partner or family member was among the victims of the perpetrator. The Invisible Man illustrates this point well through the pain and lethal treatment he inflicts upon others during his campaign against Cecilia. Indeed, the invisibility projected upon domestic violence renders us unable to see even deadlier looming consequences.
The Invisible Man takes the monster movie and flips the concept on its head, positing that the scariest monsters of all are the ones that live among us in reality and whose behavior we often take for granted and fail to recognize for the horror that it truly is. Elizabeth Moss is fantastic in the lead role, taking the audience through the journey of an abused woman and the mental pitfalls involved with having had such an experience. The film begins with a tense, silent extended scene as she leaves her abuser, making plain the paranoia and danger involved in leaving for a safer environment. Aldis Hodge also continues the acting tear he has been on over the past year with a strong supporting performance as Ceclia’s ally throughout the film. Director Leigh Whannell unquestionably becomes a director to watch with this wonderful follow-up to 2018’s sci-fi instant cult classic Upgrade. He and director of photography Stefan Duscio utilizes camera techniques to assist in building the dread and tension that come with being terrorized by a menace you can’t see including wide shots with focus on empty spaces, sweeping camera movement, and Whannell’s now signature camera syncing technique that locks onto the body and movement of the character onscreen making them appear almost robotic. While I did have a question about one specific plot point involving Cecilia, Emily, and an email, his screenplay is tight and well-paced, never dragging over its two-hour, five minute runtime and culminating in an explosive third act that keeps you guessing and presents a few last curveballs, lest you think you have the entire story figured out. Whannell is quickly being a master of genre fare with poignant things to say about the world at large.
Image: Universal Pictures
