By day, he is bullied at work. By night, he patrols the streets of Sydney in his costume made super-costume, freaking out his neighbors and attracting the attention of the local constabulary. He has a record of this sort of thing, which is why his brother Tim frequently pops over with a six-pack of Fosters for a one-sided man-to-man. Tim thinks he recently met-cute with his new girlfriend Melody, but she looks like she is about to break-out in hives whenever he tells the story.
When Melody gets a load of Griff, she recognizes something of a kindred spirit. She is also quite shy and frequently obsesses over the possibility of walking through walls, like Kitty Pryde in the X-Men. She and Griff would definitely get that reference. However, it is not clear whether she truly represents a healthy potential relationship as she encourages Griff’s quest for invisibility, pushing him deeper into his fantasy world.
Believe it or not, Invisible is a surprisingly mature and nuanced film. Ford is particularly adept at misdirecting and subverting viewers’ well-honed genre movie expectations. He also refrains from papering over Griff’s considerable issues with pleasant “be-true-to-your-dreams” wrapping. Instead, he makes it clear this character has genuine angst and insecurities.
Best known for True Blood, Ryan Kwanten’s performance as Griff comes as another happy shock. Though he was frankly rather wooden in the silly revenge pot-boiler Red Hill, the sensitivity and vulnerability of his work here constitutes a quantum leap forward. Maeve Dermody (which must surely be her real name) also gives a fully realized, multi-dimensional performance as Melody, never becoming the simplistic sidekick her character perhaps aspires to be.
