The Unseen

We found the acting in this film pretty decent and believable but the storyline was all over the place. So much more could have been done with this great concept of visually disappearing skin and flesh. We couldn't wait for it to finish.

Most of the movie is the usual dysfunctional male w/issues resolved w/drugs & alcohol. Usual can't connect well w/family, or anyone else for that matter. So he's off to rescue the troubled, hasn't seen in ages, teen daughter as our plot focal point. Oh, and in some not explained, failure to pass grade school science sort-of-way, they both are slowly disappearing. Yes, like ever expanding parts of their body don't physically exist - OK!. Except some how those parts can still touch the real physical world. Usual green screen to fill in the missing parts w/background. It's not even fantasy, it's just dumb!

Most of this is what you'd call kitchen sink drama--or the Canadian version of that. Dour uneventful life presented in a dour uneventful way. The set up is good and the final 20 minutes also finally mix invisible "problem" with real life problem into a satisfying ending. But at 97 minutes you feel you've seen a first draft screenplay for a short film tortured into a feature length.

Now it's not just that there aren't invisible "Gags" every other scene, it's that as a drama it's all very slow paced and in the worst sense Canadian.

Effects, what ones there are, are very well done but the connection and balance of existential invisibility and kitchen sink drama--really melodrama, isn't there.

Another thing is, it chooses to present invisibility as a sort of genetic problem not really talked about. This works well. Then unfortunately they introduce some mystical Chinese tea into the story? Either make this a supernatural or existential story--here they kind of mix the least exciting elements of both.

The writer and director just doesn't really have a handle on what would make this all work.

It has a first timer feel to the pacing--where everything just goes on and on so we hang for every last small nuance of performance. The performances are good, but the whole thing has the pace of a hangover.

Nicely produced. A good idea. But the script isn't there. Somewhere where between the over-the-top dumb exploitation of The Hollow Man and the small mostly-nothing-happens approach to this film is the film they were trying to make. As they say A for effort....

Vague story with potential to be decent but nothing happens for ages then it all happens in 10 mins. Glad I watched it at work, less painful losing hours of my life.

I don't understand why there are so many negative reviews for this. It's sad that people are now so used to big budget action franchise movies that they have the attention span of a goldfish and need everything explained to them. This is a terrific little movie, made with real heart. The performances are good, and it had an intriguing premise that did not disappoint. The sci-fi element is what lifts it though, without it this would have been another mundane movie about mundane people and their mundane problems. The protagonist suffers from a unique condition, and the gradual reveal is very well done. And I like how not everything is tied up neatly at the end, leaving some things to the imagination. This director is one to watch out for. I hope he gets to make more movies.