The Invasion

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Jeremy Northam, Jeffrey Wright, Jackson Bond, Veronica Cartwright, Josef Sommer, Celia Weston, Roger Rees, Susan Floyd, Stephanie Berry
Language: English
Banner: Village Roadshow Pictures Entertainment
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Producer: Roy Lee, Doug Davison, Susan Downey
Camera: Rainer Klausmann
Story: Jack Finney
Screenplay: Dave Kajganich
Music: John Ottman
Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Year: 2007

Do not trust anyone. Do not show emotion. Do not fall asleep. Would you be able to do that to maintain your humanity? This picture demonstrates just how hard that could be. The desperation, the paranoia, the helplessness and the endless persecution gives an edge to this story but overall it falls a little short. It is an interesting combination of drama, horror, and sci-fi, but it’s not very strong in any of these. What makes the movie worthwhile is Nicole Kidman’s performance. The horror was somewhat tame and the sci-fi was a bit “matter-of-fact” leaving only Nicole’s drama to give life to the movie.

This is the fourth motion picture depiction of Jack Finney’s novel, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. In this version the alien form comes to Earth attached to a space shuttle that falls apart during re-entry thus spreading the “invaders”. They exist in the form of an advanced virus that is easily spread and is activated when humans sleep. When they wake up, they are still who they are but they are now possessed by this emotionless alien influence whose main mission is to possess all humans and dispose of those who resist. Carol Bennell (Nicole Kidman) is inevitably dragged into this conflict and struggles to keep her humanity intact and that of her son, Oliver (Jackson Bond). She relies on her good friend Ben Driscoll (Daniel Craig) to help put the pieces of this puzzle together to understand what’s going on before it’s too late.

Ah, the Australian phenom who can do no wrong graces us with a stirring performance in this film. There are a few moments in the movie where she must act emotionless so as not to blow her cover to the already converted people. What makes it impressive is that she is ready to burst with emotion due to the nature of her situation and the viewer can tell how hard she tries to contain herself and just barely get under the alien radar . . . riveting. You’ve got to give Daniel Craig some credit for not letting James Bond keep him in the shadows. Sure this isn’t exactly a huge role and sure his performance wasn’t exactly breathtaking, as he was in Casino Royale, but he did a decent job nonetheless. Little boy Jackson Bond was impressive though. He kept up in relatively good pace with Nicole. Where do they get these talented kids from? These three actors gave us the only characters with which there was any kind of connection even though they were not well developed.

The concept of Finney’s story is imaginative and interesting. This film’s interpretation was a good attempt at modernizing it, but it somehow took away from the intensity of its horror. The price you pay for keeping it PG-13 I guess. You can’t blame the cinematography though. There was a constant gloom while watching this film as if it were as emotionless as the alien beings themselves. This is Director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s first English language work, having done several in German. Not bad for his first crossover. You can tell he knows what he is doing it’s just that he took on a remake of a challenging story. Fortunately, there is more to this movie in that it touches on certain social issues and the human condition. Are we losing touch of our individuality? Are we becoming more and more emotionless? Is everything resolved with pills that are supposed to bring us back to “normal”? Are we becoming less human?

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