The Invisible

The Invisible is a 2007 American supernatural teen horror starring Justin Chatwin, Margarita Levieva, Chris Marquette, Marcia Gay Harden, and Callum Keith Rennie. The movie was released in theaters on April 27, 2007 and on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on October 16, 2007.

The Invisible is a remake of the Swedish film, Den Osynlige, which was based on the novel of the same name by Mats Wahl. The Invisible was shot mostly in and around Vancouver. This is the last film distributed by Hollywood Pictures.

Plot
High school senior Nick Powell (Justin Chatwin) plans to skip his graduation and fly to London for a writing program, despite the plans his controlling mother, Diane (Marcia Gay Harden), has for him. While he is a top performer in school and cares deeply for creative writing, his mother often pressures him to succeed past his abilities and remains emotionally distant. A few years prior, Nick's father died unexpectedly and the two have maintained a strained relationship in silence.

Nick's best friend, Pete Egan (Chris Marquette), confides in him that he is bullied by Annie Newton (Margarita Levieva), a troubled teen. Nick attempts to step in on one such occasion, only for it to escalate into a physical confrontation. Annie's closest friends are a few violent thieves, and her boyfriend, Marcus (Alex O'Loughlin), is on parole for similar violations.

Later in the day, Nick tells Pete about his plans to leave for London and the writing program there, and they share a bitter-sweet goodbye. The same evening, Annie impulsively decides to rob a jewellery store across the street from where Marcus is stealing a car. Marcus reprimands her, and later tries to take the jewels for himself, but Annie keeps them and defiantly pushes him to try and stop her. Believing Annie to be out of control, Marcus tips off the cops. Annie is arrested and assumes that Pete is responsible because he saw her load the merchandise into her locker at school.

She later attempts to beat a confession out of Pete. When Annie doesn't believe his innocence, Pete reluctantly gives up Nick's name in order to stop his beating, thinking that Nick will be on a plane to London already. He does not know that Nick's flight schedule had changed and that he gave his ticket to a girl at a party, deciding last minute not to go. Annie and her crew find Nick walking home from a party. They run him off the road and beat him mercilessly. Annie goes too far, and believes she killed Nick. They dump his body in a nearby sewer.

The next morning Nick goes to school to find that no one can see or hear him. He returns to his home to find his mother making a missing person report with the police. After a while, Nick thinks that maybe he may be alive but unconscious. As Nick comes to realize that he's having an out-of-body experience, he attempts to reach out to Annie and Pete in a desperate bid to save his life. He follows Annie in his new state of near death willing her to tell the police where his body is as she does not know he is still alive.

Detective Larson seems close to putting together the whole truth, and implies that once he finds Annie he will be able to put the robberies and murder on Marcus. Since Marcus is still on parole, Detective Larson adds the pressure that even associating or participating in a felony could send him back to prison. Marcus decides to get involved, so he kidnaps Pete and forces him to lead him to Nick's body so they can move it together to another location. He then conspires to kill Annie and arranges to meet with her. Annie calls Pete to the meeting place also, who is under surveillance by the police. As Annie flees from both Marcus and the police, Nick yells at her and for the first time she turns back and responds.

The two cannot hold a conversation, and Annie cannot see Nick, but she hears some of his voice in her head and has the sense that his presence is following her around. From this association, Annie begins to feel the effects of her actions on her conscience, and stops to visit Nick's room to get a better sense of who he is. The two realize the tragedy of their lives was that they were so similar that given different choices and events, the two could have been close. Diane catches Annie in his room, and she flees. She returns to the woods to find Nick's body, only to see that it has been moved. She confronts Pete, and then Marcus trying to learn the location of the body. Marcus tells her, but shoots her in the belly as she leaves. She shoots Marcus in return, then calls the police to tell them where to find Nick. Nick is saved just in time, but Annie succumbs to her wound after visiting him in the hospital.

Plot Differences Between Remake and Original
In the Swedish film "Den Osynlige", of which The Invisible is a remake, "Niklas" (Nick Powell) does not regain consciousness, and "Annelie" (Annie Newton) does not end up being shot nor does she die, but instead turns herself in after her confession and apology. Also, in the original, Pete dies after his suicide attempt.

Neither version is true to the novel where the "Annie" character is a neo-nazi. She never regrets anything in the novel and is not displayed in a sympathetic light. Also, in the novel, all the teens are 14-15, "Nick's" girlfriend is pregnant, and "Nick's" mother is not excessively controlling.

Cast

 * Justin Chatwin as Nicholas 'Nick' Powell
 * Margarita Levieva as Annie Newton
 * Marcia Gay Harden as Diane Powell
 * Chris Marquette as Pete Egan
 * Alex O'Loughlin as Marcus Bohem
 * Callum Keith Rennie as Detective Brian Larson
 * Michelle Harrison as Detective Kate Tunney
 * Tania Saulnier as Suzie
 * Ryan Kennedy as Matty
 * Andrew Francis as Dean
 * Maggie Ma as Danielle
 * P. Lynn Johnson as Sharon Egan
 * Serge Houde as Martin Egan
 * Bilal Sayed as Dino Garcia
 * Cory Monteith as Jimmy

Filming locations

 * The setting of the film is in Burnaby, Washington, a fictitious suburb of Seattle, Washington, United States. "Seattle" is printed on Nick's plane ticket to "London"; and Detective Larson's business card bears the logo of the "Burnaby Police Department as well as its Washington address, however, most of the film was shot on location in and around Vancouver, British Columbia, including the city of Burnaby, British Columbia, to coincide with director David S. Goyer's busy filming schedule [director's commentary]. Despite the subtle disguises to the contrary, however, Vancouver is clearly depicted in the establishing shot of the landscape in the first scene, in which the famous Harbour Centre building can be seen just left of the middle of the cityscape. Additional scenes showcase Vancouver's SkyTrain running through a suburb and the seawall bordering Stanley Park.
 * The high school scenes in this movie were filmed at Burnaby Mountain Secondary School in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada (the name of the school remains unchanged in the film, however the mascot and its logo were changed to suit the director's taste [director's commentary]). Classrooms were digitally edited with multiple classrooms mixed in. Students of the school were not allowed to be extras.

Criticism and ratings
The Invisible opened at #2 in its first week at the box office below Disturbia with $7.7 million at 2,019 locations. In its second week the film had a 57.7% drop-off, staying at #4. The film grossed $20.1 million domestically and $4.0 million in foreign countries making a total of $24.1 million worldwide. The movie received mostly negative reviews. The site Rotten Tomatoes report that 21% of critics gave the film positive reviews (based on 54 reviews) with the reason being "Dull and confusing execution makes this ghost story utterly forgettable and unintentionally funny." .

Home media
This film was released on Blu-ray Disc and standard DVD October 16, 2007 by Hollywood Pictures Home Entertainment.
 * Audio commentary by director David S. Goyer and writers Christine Roum and Mick Davis
 * Deleted scenes
 * Music videos:
 * 1) The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars
 * 2) Taking Back Control - Sparta