Nicklas Erccison (Gustaf Skarsgard) is a soon to be graduating high school student who is pushed by his mother Kerstin (Li Bradhe) into pursuing a career in finance while Nikalas has his sights set on a college in England where he plans on attending without his mother's knowledge as he's been saving money by writing other students assignment papers. When Kerstin learns of Nicklas' decision, it drives a wedge in his plans and he misses his departure engaging in joyless partying that ultimately yields no respite. Meanwhile, Nicklas' best friend Peter (David Hagman) gets in debt to Annelie (Tuva Novotny) a petty crook who runs a small gang in the school. When Annelie's unfaithful boyfriend Marcus (Par Luttropp) informs the police of her activities, Annelie has her thugs bring in Peter whom she assumes to be the informant. With Annelie disbelieving he had nothing to do with it, Peter points to Nicklas as the informant and he is soon beaten and left for dead in the woods. The next morning Nicklas is now invisible to everyone as the entire town and police detective Thomas Larsson (Thomas Hedengran) search for Nicklas as he tries in vain to get the attention of those looking for him.
The Invisible is a 2002 supernatural thriller directed by Joel Bergvall and Simon Sandquist and loosely adapted by Mick Davis from the 2000 book of the same name by Mats Wahl. Produced in 2002, the film is more notable for serving as the basis for the 2007 Hollywood remake as its international footprint beyond Sweden was largely by production company Sonet Films selling the rights to Spyglass Media. There's a solid enough hook at play in The Invisible, even if it's somewhat at odds with the presentational and design elements on display.
Gustaf Skarsgard is really solid as Nicklas and even in a very pre-fame role before he took off with roles such as Floki in Vikings, you can see he has real stage presence and charisma. Tuva Novotny is no less impressive as Annelie, the co-lead in the story, whose abrasive exterior reveals a level of deep seated anguish and pain as the movie goes on. There's a really strong emotional core at play between Nicklas and Annelie as it serves as a redemption story for Annelie in helping Nicklas ghost find respite. While I like the underlying ideas at play in The Invisible, the way in which they're presented does mean it doesn't fully reach its potential. One of the bigger hurdles is that due to the rules involved in how Nicklas' limbo state works, it essentially means there's not much he can do for almost 50% of the film's running time so he very much drifts along with the plot without being an active character. Eventually we do get more activity from him in a later development in the plot, but you can tell the movie is really struggling with justifying his presence in the story until it absolutely needs him. The presentation of the limbo state is also quite odd as from Nicklas' point of view he can interact with things and there are consequences and reactions, but then they'll reset as if nothing happened and it's a really odd creative decision that only serves to call attention to itself especially when we get a vehicular collision that has not aged gracefully. I will say I did like how bold the ending got in how it wrapped up and it's definitely a factor that makes this a more bold and risky film than its U. S. counterpart.
The Invisible struggles with its high concept premise, but it does work in a solid emotional core and ample opportunity for its lead actors to shine. The movie also elevates itself with a bold ending that earns it considerable goodwill in compensating for its more obvious shortcomings. Definitely worth a look if you're curious about pre-fame Gustaf Skarsgard.
