What is it with Elisabeth Moss and picking roles that so emphatically and without subtlety echo the abusive & controlling nature of Scientology, while still going to bat for the cult and going after those that dare to leave it? This doesn’t really detract from the movie, but I couldn’t get it out of my head while watching it – she was raised within the church, so I get it, but I hope she wakes up soon.
The Invisible Man is one of those movies that will probably be forgotten because of the quarantine crisis, but not because it is bad. No, it is far from it! It’s a powerful movie about abuse, female agency, gaslighting and subverting the revenge fantasy trope, to sum up its key themes. The titular invisible man was written as an unbalanced criminal in the original story, which holds a key place in early sci-fi canon, and the way Leigh Whannell has updated the villain to a very realistic idea of ‘villainy’ is very smart.
Elisabeth Moss goes in on the realism as well – there’s no attempt to glamourise her character, nor is she treated as pitiful, nor is she some kind of Tarantino superwoman. She’s a woman whose trauma has changed her, but further trauma through the movie’s plot blows back hard against the person responsible for it.
8/10: Incredible how she can’t… see right through Scientology