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April (Sara Cole) is the weird girl at her school, the girl
who's friends with nobody and who nobody wants to be friends with, just
because she's slightly different, because she dresses weird, is of a pale
complexion - in a word, she's a bit of a goth. As a result, nobody really
sees her, remembers her, cares about her ... Now meet 8 popular kids, 4
of each sex: They are not particularly bright but reasonably goodlooking,
perfectly follow the dresscode of their generation, and think about little
more than booze, weed, partying and making out - and they want to party
this weekend, but sadly lack a location to do so ... until April, totally
out of the blue, invites them to her place. Sure, our eight guys and gals
are a bit creeped out by this, but then they figure since April is not
their friend as such, that only gives them permission to party a little
harder, thrash her place a little more, pretty much live like there's no
tomorrow ... Our kids arrive at April's and at first the party is as
expected, boozing, making out, hanging around the jacuzzi and swimming
pool - typical high school party stuff. And April is the perfect weird
hostess inasmuch as she keeps out of the way most of the time. Of all the
kids, only Drew (Sam Navarro) actually makes an attempt to get to know
April a little better - and realize she's a rather nice girl ... Eventually,
the party gets out of hands though, but not in the expected way: Thing is,
time seems to lose all meaning, seems to run forwards as well as backwards
- meaning things that have happened never happened at all, or happen more
than once, Eventually, some of our kids are killed then show up alive
again, or show up dead without having died, or commit suicide that doesn't
always prove fatal, and when the kids are finally freaked out enough so
they want to leave the place, they realize they can't, they are captured
within April's house, but not just locked in but as if they were caught in
another dimension. Eventually, our heroes realize that April is the key
to it all, and showing her, whom they have treated like dirt even while
partying at her place, is the only means of lifting the spell or whatever
it is she has put onto them. So Drew has a heart-to-heart talk with her, a
talk that takes the both of them onto the roof of her house, and she tells
him she once fell off the very same roof. Somehow romance blossoms between
Arpril and Drew, which opens the house to our dimension again and our kids
(those who are still alive) manage to escape. Having found love, Drew
could have stayed, but then he jumps down the roof to escape with his
friends. April jumps after him, to her death ... but did she really die? The
next day, the kids return to April's place to look for their presumably
dead friends, but all they find are April's parents who tell them April
has died 5 years ago, falling from the house's roof, a possible suicide
because of being mobbed at her school ... On one hand, Almost
Invisible is a fascinating film: Labyrinthine in structure, it follows
nothing but the logic of a nightmare for the longest time, it keeps the
audience guessing from beginning to end without ever losing sight of its
basic narrative, and it features quite a few genuine shocks to keep the
viewers on the edge of their seats. That all said though, Almost
Invisible is also a definitely less than perfect movie: Basically, it
lacks characters to identify with, meaning you never get emotionally
immersed into the movie. On ojne hand there are eight kids that are all so
flatly drawn you can neither keep them apart nor remember their names, nor
do you care - the best thing you can say about them is the girls are all
cute and run around in their bikinis most of the time. On the other hand,
you have April, the weird one, who at least has an interesting backstory
to her - but that is not told until very late, and until then she is
allowed to do nothing more than look mysteriously. Also, the film's
editing job doesn't always help in keeping the whole thing together on one
hand, on the other it lacks a certain playfulness that could have improved
the movie in structure. That said though, the film is still a very
interesting watch, and it gets better the longer it goes on (apart from
the rather predictable but seemingly unavoidable punchline), you just
can't shake the feeling it is not the movie it could have been.
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