Haunted by memories of a much better flick
I might have to forfeit my movie-reviewer credentials for admitting this, but halfway through The Invisible, I started to miss Demi Moore. Not just her; give me some credit. I missed everything about Ghost, including the Oscar-winning Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Swayze, and even the soundtrack ("Unchained Melody," of course).
I might have to forfeit my movie-reviewer credentials for admitting this, but halfway through
The Invisible
, I started to miss Demi Moore. Not just her; give me some credit. I missed everything about
Ghost
, including the Oscar-winning Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Swayze, and even the soundtrack ("Unchained Melody," of course).
The Invisible is not a remake of Ghost. It's a remake of a 2002 Swedish film, Den Osynlige, but that movie had so many parallels to the 1990 Hollywood hit that they're hard to overlook.
The Invisible involves a ghost no one can see but some people can hear - most of the time. High school senior Nick (Justin Chatwin, The Chumscrubber) is beaten and left for dead by a teenage jewel thief. Annie (Margarita Levieva, TV's Vanished) and her thugs mistakenly think that he ratted her out to the police. His spirit comes looking for a way to lead people to where the body is stashed.
In the process, Nick has a chance to observe his mother (Marcia Gay Harden, who despite winning an Oscar for Pollock, seems to pick scripts at random, or were you one of the lucky ones who missed Welcome to Mooseport?). Nick considered his Mom cold, an impression that changes when he sees how she reacts to the news that he's missing.
Director David S. Goyer (Blade: Trinity) doesn't get half the skin-crawling mileage out of the ghost factor that he could. As a result, The Invisible really isn't worth seeing.
The Invisible *1/2 (out of four stars)
Directed by David S. Goyer, with Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, and Marcia Gay Harden.
Parent's guide: PG-13 (Violence, criminality, sensuality and profanity.) Playing at: Area theatersEndText