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Elisabeth Moss: "The Invisible Man"

Spoilers ahead!

A young woman is entangled in an abusive relationship. She gets out; her sister drives her away. Then--thank God--the awful boyfriend commits suicide.

But: Is he actually dead?

The young man seems to return--from a place beyond the grave. But he is invisible. He does things--tiny things, at first--to mess with our heroine's head. A pot on the stove catches fire, mysteriously. A little girl is slapped. A strange, poisonous email appears in an inbox, and its apparent sender is pleading ignorance.

Our heroine realizes that her boyfriend has faked his death and designed a special suit, which allows him to become invisible. (This is a genre picture!) The attacks become more alarming. Throats are assaulted. In the movie's already-iconic tone-shifting moment, a knife sprouts invisible legs, walks across a public table, and murders a supporting character.

It's not clear to me if Elisabeth Moss and/or the writers read "No Visible Bruises," but it's very clear that the creative team is using horror-movie conventions to make you think about domestic violence. A woman attempts to leave seven or eight times, on average, before she actually manages to escape an abusive relationship. Society conspires to see the man as innocent--just an average guy with an "anger-management problem"--and the metaphor of "invisibility" is brilliant and startling, here.

Statistics show that, the moment the man reaches for the woman's throat, eventual murder becomes much, much more likely.

The particularly galling theme in "No Visible Bruises" is that society tends to blame the victim. The recurring question isn't Why does the man act that way? The question is instead Why doesn't she leave? The book makes clear: There *is* such a thing as a dumb question. Why doesn't she leave? is a dumb question. It's the wrong question.

Elisabeth Moss apparently took the "Invisible Man" script and crossed out entire pages of dialogue and explanation. She said, simply, "I can say all of this with my eyes." And indeed she can.

I really liked this movie.
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