72. Griff the Invisible

Griff (Ryan Kwantan) may be just your normal office worker (well maybe not normal because he seems to have some sort of social anxiety) but by night he is masked vigilante saving his neighborhood from evil.  And like every other superhero, he is misunderstood and people think he is doing harm.  Thus there is a reward for his capture by the neighborhood.  Griff's headquarters is in his tiny apartment.  When his brother Tim (Patrick Brammall) comes over to check up on him, Griff quickly hides all his surveillance equipment and crime fighting suit so his brother won't be suspicious.  This time when Tim comes over his brings along his "girlfriend" (if you can call it that being it's only their second date), Melody (Maeve Dermody).  Melody is nice but a little off.  She likes to call herself an experimentalist and her most recent experiment is to line up the space between atoms so that she can travel through a wall. 

Since Griff and Melody are both a little quirky they immediately take a liking to each other but there are two problems.  First, Griff doesn't want to hurt Tim, who seems really into Melody.  And secondly, Griff has to protect Melody away from his nemesis out on the streets.  Griff has the idea to become invisible and starts working on an invisibility suit.  Melody tells Tim that she doesn't want to be with him because she likes Griff and goes on to make Griff an invisibility suit.  When he puts it on he becomes invisible to Melody, but Tim can still see him.  They go on a mission to save the police chief and while Griff is out fighting bad guys, he hears Melody talking to Tim.  They are talking about Griff and how he needs to grow up and stop believing that he is a superhero.  Griff hears the wrong part of the conversation though and doesn't hear the part where Melody says they are both freaks that belong together and that is why she loves him.

I'm such a sucker, but I just think this film was really cute.  Ryan Kwantan should always play the dopey character.  He does it so well.  Just don't have him talk a lot.  I think it has something to do about his brown puppy dog eyes.  Moving on (I could talk about Kwantan all day) this was a quirky love story about finding someone who can really see you for who you are (which is ironic considering how badly Griff wants to be invisible).  The characters were interesting and I kept wondering to myself if he was a superhero or just plain crazy.   Once they did establish which one he was, it was still kind of confusing.  The other thing that was annoying was the brother character.  He seemed like such a put together grown up with limited imagination, so why is he head over heels for Melody?  It makes no sense.  Plus she never seemed to be interested in him at all.  So why was he trying so hard to win her over at first?  It just didn't make sense.  The love story was pretty cute.  Full of awkward and odd moments.  Loved it.  They did a great job with set design.  There were times when the wardrobe and set design would match making him blend right into the surroundings.  It was fun to watch.

Rating:  ****

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cyfKRAG74Y