A number of real-life superhero flicks came out in a short space of time, and they were all a little off in their own way. Kick-Ass started well but quickly devolved into an adolescent fantasy. Super did almost the opposite, becoming harshly realistic about its growing psychosis. Griff the Invisible, the Australian cousin to these movies, tries to walk an uneasy line between the fantasy/reality poles. Instead of harsh reality or giddy fantasy, Griff, like its main character, is merely delusional. This is an important point to make, I think, since if you see someone wearing tights and a big G on their chest on the street at night, they're pretty much guaranteed to be off their rocker. Delusion is an important part of the superhero genre, and the undercurrent beneath all comic books is that of a child who refuses to grow up.
Griff (Ryan Kwanten, True Blood) is child-like. He's awkward, antisocial, meek, introverted. He keeps a nondescript job in an office building where he is routinely bullied by the local alpha-male. But he has a shocking secret: at night he's Griff the Invisible, a crime fighter who dons a costume and battles muggers in his neighborhood.
Of course, the police (and his neighbors) seem more concerned about this masked stalker that keeps popping up on the streets and less about the crimes he's supposedly stopping.
Enter Melody (Maeve Dermody), a too-fey-to-live young girl who lives in her parents' house and spends most of her time trying to put her head through the bedroom wall (to prove quantum mechanics). Melody is the epitome of the stereotypical indie-movie-girl. Think Zooey Deschanel with a lobotomy, reading dialogue written for an eight-year-old. She quickly latches onto Griff like a blonde barnacle, feeding his ever-growing delusions, because clearly she doesn't want to grow up either.
Melody represents the big problem with Griff the Invisible. Take away the charm, the cuteness (trying to make an invisibility suit out of starch and lemon juice!). and what do you have? Grown-ups acting like toddlers. Griff doesn't want to grow up, and we don't really want him to either (otherwise we'd have to grow up too). But the movie gives us no choice. Griff's delusions (if they are delusions) just aren't interesting enough to be a real alternative to Griff's reality. Like Melody, they're kind of hollow.
For this movie to work, the audience needs to be torn between the fantasy and the reality, between Melody and Griff's common sense older brother, Tim (Patrick Brammal). Instead, we have a silly baby-lady on one side and a stuffed shirt on the other. It leaves us, in the end, with nothing really to root for.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
A small standard making-of featurette, some deleted scenes that might've added a bit more whimsy to the final picture. Plus a music video and some directorial commentary.
"Griff the Invisible" is on sale November 15, 2011 and is rated PG13. Comedy, Comic Book, Foreign. Written and directed by Leon Ford. Starring Maeve Dermody, Patrick Brammall, Ryan Kwanten, Marshall Napler.
