Movie Review: The Invasion

The idea of people being replaced or controlled by aliens has been a mainstay of the science fiction genre for a long time. Jack Finney wrote The Invasion of the Body Snatchers way back in 1954. Since then, it has probably been the single most influential work on the concept. The Invasion is the fourth time that the novel has been rewritten for film. It was first made in 1956, then again in 1978, and a third time in 1993. Where this take falls within those other films, I could not say (I need to re-watch those earlier films). How this one stands up as a film on its own is a debatable issue. It is moderately successful at creating a creepy atmosphere of unease, but ultimately does not seem to have a lot to say.

The Invasion has issues right away with its narrative. It suffers from telling too much and showing too little. Even worse, it often skips the telling too much, forgets the showing too little and skips bits entirely. I could not help but think there are a number of good scenes that were left on the cutting room floor. Rumor has it that producer Joel Silver did not like the film that director Oliver Hirschbiegel turned in. Silver brought in the Wachowski Brothers to do some rewrites and James McTeague to do some reshoots. Exactly which bits are whose I could not tell, but it was pretty easy to tell that something had been messed with. It is a shame too, as the film still contained some creepy atmosphere and the performances of Kidman and Craig were both serviceable.

We open on Kidman, as Carol Bennell, rummaging through a ransacked pharmacy looking for something, anything, that would keep her awake. All this while a locked door shook menacingly in the background. Clearly, this is a bit of foreshadowing, giving us a taste of the danger that lies ahead.

Back to the past, or present depending on your point of view, we bear witness to the tragic crash of a space shuttle making an unscheduled landing attempt. The crash leaves a scattering of debris between Washington, DC and Texas. A curious spore-like substance is found covering the wreckage. Shortly after this discovery, people begin to change. It is not very noticeable at first, but before long something strange and dangerous is going on and it is time to be very afraid.

It is during the early stages of the mounting threat that the most egregious narrative mistakes happen. The knowledge possessed by our heroes seems to make fast leaps of logic and the audience is left in the dark as to how they came to possess such information. Kidman's Bennell would go off to do something, get a little bit of new info, return to the base and the others already knew it. What is going on here? It is as if the concept of an expositionary script and narrative flow were thrown out the window in favor of a quick creepy scene. The movie had a rather concise running time of 90 minutes, but there was no reason why we couldn't have gotten another 10-20 minutes of footage to flesh out what was there. I am sure it would have greatly improved the movies outlook.

Then there is the inclusion of these flashback flashes that are supposed to remind us of what was happened before. Why? Do you have that little respect for your audience that we can't remember what happened for more than thirty minutes? These bits really got under my skin.

Still, the sequences of Bennell's dawning realization, and some of the set pieces of her trying to blend in with those already taken were successful at creating some suspense. Kidman's work was not that bad, although she did have this manner of swaying as she walked that seemed a little unnatural to begin with. Perhaps she was replaced prior to the making of the movie?

The end result is a movie that I still find rather entertaining but does not know what it wants to be or what it wants to say. There are references to Iraq and how humanity is defined by violence, although I am not sure what it was really trying to say about that. As for the movie as a movie, it mashed action, horror, and drama in alternating bits that did not gel with one another.

The closest I can figure the movie is a filmed representation of Kidman's divorce from Tom Cruise. It dawned on me part way through that this could be taken as a metaphor for their relationship. The replaced people standing in for Scientology, Carol's ex-husband standing in for Cruise (epitomized by his telling Carol how she hands out pills to make people feel better, while they just changed people and made them better). She refuses to leave her son while the cult like pod people close in on her. I am sure this was not their intent whatsoever, but it was funny how it seemed to pop out at me.

This was meant to be Oliver Hirschbiegel's English language debut, but I cannot help but feel it has been marred by outside meddling. This does not feel like the work of the same man that delivered Downfall and Das Experiment. Maybe one day we will get to see the original cut of the film.

Bottomline. Despite all of the ill will I seem to have directed at the film, I cannot deny that I left entertained. Kidman was a lovely presence on the big screen, and Craig was solid in his limited role. There are some creepy scenes which help save it from being a complete wreck. In the end, though, you would probably be better served by one of the prior three interpretations.

Mildly Recommended.