Susan Granger’s review of “Griff the Invisible” (Indomina Releasing)
Australian actor Ryan Kwanten of TV’s hit vampire series “True Blood” stars in this bizarre romantic comedy as a 28 year-old loser who works in the customs bureau but thinks he’s a superhero.
To say that Griff is eccentric is an understatement. He’s shy, naive and withdrawn, which makes him a prime target for the office bully (Toby Schmitz), much to the consternation of their boss (David Webb). But at night, Griff takes on another persona, patrolling the dark alleys of his suburban neighborhood like a vigilante, clad in a black wetsuit with yellow trim and a gigantic G on his chest. He is determined to vanquish the lawless and eradicate evil.
More than anything, Griff wants to become invisible – which leads to his mixing various substances he buys at the local hardware store, hoping to achieve the impossible.
Because Griff’s conservative older brother Tim (Patrick Brammall) is concerned about Griff’s peculiarities and increasing alienation, he brings his new girlfriend, Melody (Maeve Dermody), over to meet him. Rather than being put off by Griff’s oddness, Melody senses a kindred spirit because she firmly believes that, if she concentrates hard enough, she can walk through walls.
Explaining that her father owns the hardware store where Griff buys his surveillance supplies, Melody then begins to visit Griff on her own, which makes him acutely uncomfortable, but, gradually, these two clumsy, seemingly lost and lonely souls find common ground for a fragile relationship.
“We see the world one way – you see it another – and I don’t want to change it,” Melody explains to Tim.
Rarely stumbling, writer/director Leon Ford walks a thin line between fantasy and reality in this experimental debut feature, aided in great part by Simon Chapman’s cinematography. And if you’re a Ryan Kwanten fan, search out last year’s Aussie Western, “Red Hill,” in which he plays a hapless rookie cop beginning a new job in a desolate outpost.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Griff the Invisible” is an original, idiosyncratic 7, a quirky glimpse of imaginative innocence.
