The Invisible

While a teenager (Justin Chatwin) lies dying in the woods from a beating by school bullies, his spirit roams unseen, trying to help others find him before it’s too late. Written by Mick Davis and Christine Roum (from a Swedish film based on a novel by Mats Wahl), the movie has a premise designed to hook adolescent viewers with a catchy preview trailer (and the trailer, which has been in theaters for months, has explanatory scenes that don’t appear in the finished film). But most characters (especially Marcia Gay Harden as Chatwin’s mother) are sketchy and two-dimensional. Chatwin and Margarita Levieva (as his hardbitten nemesis) carry much of the film with assurance, but their appealing screen presence can’t overcome the movie’s essential gimmickry or its ultimate descent into bathetic teen angst.