Making its first appearance in 2010 at the Toronto film festival, Griff the Invisible was well-received by both audiences and critics, winning an AACTA award (essentially the Australian equivalent to an Oscar) for Best Original Screenplay. Having missed it at the time of release, I was very interested to check out this first venture into feature film by Leon Ford, an actor/writer/director arguably best known for his role in Steven Spielburg’s The Pacific.
The film is a fresh, funny take on the superhero genre – in many ways more a comedic drama than anything. Set in Sydney, Australia, the film centres around Griff (Ryan Kwanten), a lonely, nerdy office worker whose only real friend is his older brother Tim (Patrick Brammall). Even their relationship is strained: we learn that Tim only moved back to the city to keep an eye on his rather odd sibling. What Tim doesn’t know is that his brother is in fact a masked superhero, roaming the city at night to defend the weak and uphold justice. His apartment is stuffed with technology that he hurriedly hides whenever his brother shows up for an extremely awkward bonding session. The only other person paying attention to Griff is office bully Tony (Toby Schmitz) – and that is very much the wrong sort of attention.
So far so Peter Parker, right? Well that’s where you’d be wrong… Griff has an even greater secret. This film veers in a very different direction than the standard superhero fare, managing to switch effortlessly between comedy, romance, action and sadness.
The day that Griff is introduced to Tim’s new girlfriend Melody (Maeve Dermody) is the day that everything really changes. Here at last is someone as unusual as him. Someone who doesn’t dismiss him as an oddball. Someone who has a couple of peculiar secrets of her own…
Many will know Ryan Kwanten from his convincing portrayal of Jason Stackhouse – impulsive, dim-witted brother to Sookie in HBO’s True Blood. Here he is totally different and just as convincing. He ably portrays the shy, timid Griff without making him too innocent and irritating.
The rest of the cast match up to this standard too: Maeve Dermody in particular is great as the equally awkward, inquisitive Melody. Dermody delivers a shy, quirky girl who manages to avoid the much-bemoaned ‘manic pixie dream girl’ stereotype by coming across as an actual person with her own flaws and interests.
And… that’s about all I can tell you without spoiling the movie! If you haven’t watched it yet (and I recommend that you do) beware from here on…
Because of course it couldn’t be that simple, could it? The timid, awkward loner isn’t really a vigilante hero, not in the real world. And the real world is where the film is set.
Over a series of heart-breaking moments we come to realise (along with the character) that all of Griff’s heroics are in his head. The high-tech plasma screen set-up is nothing but a few old TV sets on a desk. His sharp Batman-esque costume looks like he put it together a couple of hours before a college costume party. The only power of invisibility he has is the way he’s basically ignored by everyone else. This was a pretty stunning moment for me. I had as much faith in Griff as he did in himself – that standard suspension of disbelief that you use for superhero movies was suddenly called into question. It really made me feel the pain of Griff’s loss as he realises he’s just fooling himself; he’s no hero.
Ford and cinematographer Simon Chapman (a long-time collaborator of Ford’s) clearly worked hard to create the world of Griff. The city looms over him oppressively as yet another thing pushing Griff down, crushing him under its dark weight. Nods to Gotham are very clear – an impressive feat when considering the light, open city that Sydney is. The screen is full of stark lines and angles: a handy way to reference a comic book look.
Colour also plays an important role in film: blue dominates the screen with flashes of red and yellow leaping out. The use of these most basic of colours serves to emphasise the comic-book feeling and to reflect the almost child-like innocence of Griff himself.
For me the naturalism of the script is another plus point. The characters in this world are awkward and relatable – they don’t know what to say, they struggle to really communicate. Handled poorly, this can be very annoying and seem ‘try-hard’ but Ford and his cast handle this challenge deftly. The comedy generally works well with scenes like Griff practising his ‘hero lines’ at home raising a smile – not something you’d think about usually but I bet it’s something you’d do!
Criticism of the film seems to focus around the thought that this idea has already been done, with people pointing to the likes of Super or Kick-Ass. Personally I disagree with that – sure Kick-Ass shows an average guy trying to be a hero but the idea is explored completely differently here. If anything, it shares a few similarities with Special, but again is just as different from it as Super and Kick-Ass.
My only criticism would be of the story-telling device used to kick-off Griff’s crisis of faith. Griff hearing just enough of a radioed conversation between Melody and Tim to get exactly the wrong idea feels somewhat clichéd despite the rest of the scene playing out well as Griff is slapped across the face by the fact that he’s a fake. I appreciate that something had to happen to drive the movie forwards to this point and I appreciate the difficulty there must be in coming up with a good way to do this but would like to have seen more of the originality that the rest of the film shows.
All in all, a pretty minor criticism of an imaginative film which I genuinely enjoyed. I was so ready to believe in Griff as a hero that I was surprised and saddened when the reveal came. As a viewer of course you want the hero to be real – you want to believe that the little strange guy could be more than anyone sees him as. A potentially downbeat ending is transformed by the remaining minutes of the film. Griff may not be a hero but he is a good-hearted man who eventually finds the one person who truly understands him, who doesn’t need him to change or fit in. This could be cheesy or saccharine but once again Ford’s lightness of touch saves it – there’s no Hollywood schmaltz here. Instead there are two individuals who are happy being different together.
And besides, Melody did fall through that door… didn’t she?
I fully recommend this film to anyone – superhero fan or not. After watching this I checked out Ford’s other films – all shorts – and was pleased to see more of the originality, humour, and heart that make this film so good. Ford should continue to go far as a writer and a director and I look forward to seeing whatever he comes up with next!
For more about Griff and his creator, take a look at our interview with Leon Ford coming later today! And to find out more about the film, take a look at the website here.