The less said about Griff the Invisible, the better. This wan, fey little Australian film stretches the notion of quirkiness far past the snapping point -- though the film itself has very little in the way of snap.
Ryan Kwanten (of True Blood fame) plays the title character, a nerdy office worker who is bullied by a coworker and does his best to disappear in plain sight each day. But Griff's big secret is that he spends his off-hours dressed in black neoprene, complete with rubberized hood and goggles and a big yellow "G" on his chest.
Yes, you guessed it: Griff is secretly a self-styled superhero, patrolling the streets for criminals. He administers beatdowns, growls "Get out of my neighborhood" and disappears up misty alleys.
This is well-worn territory, thanks to films like Kick-Ass, Super, and even the recent documentary, Superheroes. The bottom line: It takes a semi-delusional individual to try become an amateur crime-fighter - and fighting crime isn't as easy as the Batman movies make it look.
There's more, of course, in this limp semi-comedy from director Leon Ford. Griff meets a kindred spirit in Melody (Maeve Dermody), who happens to be dating Griff's older brother. Griff is trying to find the ingredients to make a suit that will render him invisible; Melody believes that the space between atoms means that she can find a way to walk through walls. They spot each other as kindred spirits because, well, it takes one to know one. Can you say "twee"?
This movie goes nowhere fast and is built around the fizz-less chemistry between Kwanten and Dermody. Kwanten has a face that is like a cartoon version of dim-witted handsomeness, which is what makes him so perfect on "True Blood." On the other hand, it also seems to block the expression of any intelligent thought he might be having.
Griff the Invisible is guaranteed to disappear practically while you're watching it.
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