Most likely the two highest compliments I could pay to Memoirs of an Invisible Man are that, for one, it isn't what one thinks of as the typical Chevy Chase movie and, secondly, it's striking as a Richard Matheson-lite kind of scenario explored (this isn't a slight, quite the opposite). The film Memoirs reminded me more than anything else, when it was at its strongest, was The Incredible Shrinking Man, a story that explores the terrifying existential waking nightmare of the condition that this is - becoming very small or becoming invisible and all the very real and practical problems of functioning and in society - and not taking it at least at heart as a joke.
This doesn't mean that Memoirs, like Shrinking Man, doesn't find beats and moments or full set pieces that can have a humorous bent (a cat pawing after a tiny man is scary but it's also kind of funny for example), and seeing, for example, Chevy Chase walking down a street as a woman gets her purse stolen and quickly takes it back from the thief and hands it to the woman again in seconds finds that comic book absurdity. But this isn't strictly a comedy, which makes me happy that I'm seeing it about 30 years after it came out instead of earlier. How I didn't see it as a kid, whether right after it came out (my dad rented most anything with Chevy because hey it's Chevy) or once I got into John Carpenter, I have no idea, but the distance and getting older may have helped to see this more as its own thing. This doesn't mean it isn't weak in places or that the main romance isn't the strongest, yet as a piece of throwback-in-attitude but not strict style science fiction drama it's captivating and involving.
Really this is more interesting as a Chevy Chase movie than one for the director; Carpenter was a studio hired gun (Ivan Reitman reportedly had a falling out with the star and dropped out) and his mark is in keeping the pace never too slack and the compositions favor the action bring dynamic (if a little less than other films by him than... yeah). So, it's Chase who the studio favored, but I like that he takes the character and the story seriously and does that rarity for him which is playing it straight. His narration is part of the Matheson comparison, hard to say if that's from the book or Goldman or rewrites the point is it's there as more pulpy comic-book sci-fi that I can get behind, and that mostly plays too to emphasize his struggle.
He did that sometimes in his career, and maybe was straighter depending on who he was in a scene with (ie Nothing but Trouble), but there's no mugging and nothing in his voice that tells us this is a comedy, and that makes the bits when it is amusing work more. His Nick isn't a buffoon or clueless, if anything he has no choice but to become equal parts mortified and adapt and become adept at his condition and it gives him an arc since he starts as kind of a vanilla typical white guy (as we're told he doesn't have much in friends too). Adding to this is a straightforward and kind of average but not badly done turn by Daryl Hannah, and a turn from Sam Neill who is menacing without having to over-do it or go to that. To put it this way, he can threaten someone's manly bits in a moment of rage and barely raise his voice or profile, and that's damn extraordinary acting to me.
It does start to soften in the second half once the romance picks up a bit more, as for as believable as the characters may be on their own the two don't quite gel as much as they should - or I should say why would she just immediately fall for him, uh, so much going on aside from the invisibility and desire to trade stocks and run away, is that it - and there is Brownface that I was less offended by and more just confused for why it needed to be there at all. It may help ultimately to go into this with not low but limited expectations, and I have to think like myself a number of you will come to this either after going through many of Chevy's main titles and hits or Carpenter's catalog.
I wondered if I might be indifferent to it, and was happily surprised by the quality of the special effects for the time, which show that JC had more of a budget to play with that usual and his crew did great work with him, and that the drama worked, the bits of comedy worked and the exploitation of the sci-fi genre part of it worked most of all. It's a well-oiled basic B movie elevated with A list talent.
Last but not least is a wild piece of trivia to me: it may be notable for some of you that this is one of the only times Carpenter didn't also compose the music for the film, but what you didn't know (thanks imdb) is that Shirley Walker, suggested by Chevy by the way so for once good on him, was in composing and orchestrating the score the first woman to have that title on a major Hollywood movie. By 1992. Holy (invisible voice says expletive) people!
This doesn't mean that Memoirs, like Shrinking Man, doesn't find beats and moments or full set pieces that can have a humorous bent (a cat pawing after a tiny man is scary but it's also kind of funny for example), and seeing, for example, Chevy Chase walking down a street as a woman gets her purse stolen and quickly takes it back from the thief and hands it to the woman again in seconds finds that comic book absurdity. But this isn't strictly a comedy, which makes me happy that I'm seeing it about 30 years after it came out instead of earlier. How I didn't see it as a kid, whether right after it came out (my dad rented most anything with Chevy because hey it's Chevy) or once I got into John Carpenter, I have no idea, but the distance and getting older may have helped to see this more as its own thing. This doesn't mean it isn't weak in places or that the main romance isn't the strongest, yet as a piece of throwback-in-attitude but not strict style science fiction drama it's captivating and involving.
Really this is more interesting as a Chevy Chase movie than one for the director; Carpenter was a studio hired gun (Ivan Reitman reportedly had a falling out with the star and dropped out) and his mark is in keeping the pace never too slack and the compositions favor the action bring dynamic (if a little less than other films by him than... yeah). So, it's Chase who the studio favored, but I like that he takes the character and the story seriously and does that rarity for him which is playing it straight. His narration is part of the Matheson comparison, hard to say if that's from the book or Goldman or rewrites the point is it's there as more pulpy comic-book sci-fi that I can get behind, and that mostly plays too to emphasize his struggle.
He did that sometimes in his career, and maybe was straighter depending on who he was in a scene with (ie Nothing but Trouble), but there's no mugging and nothing in his voice that tells us this is a comedy, and that makes the bits when it is amusing work more. His Nick isn't a buffoon or clueless, if anything he has no choice but to become equal parts mortified and adapt and become adept at his condition and it gives him an arc since he starts as kind of a vanilla typical white guy (as we're told he doesn't have much in friends too). Adding to this is a straightforward and kind of average but not badly done turn by Daryl Hannah, and a turn from Sam Neill who is menacing without having to over-do it or go to that. To put it this way, he can threaten someone's manly bits in a moment of rage and barely raise his voice or profile, and that's damn extraordinary acting to me.
It does start to soften in the second half once the romance picks up a bit more, as for as believable as the characters may be on their own the two don't quite gel as much as they should - or I should say why would she just immediately fall for him, uh, so much going on aside from the invisibility and desire to trade stocks and run away, is that it - and there is Brownface that I was less offended by and more just confused for why it needed to be there at all. It may help ultimately to go into this with not low but limited expectations, and I have to think like myself a number of you will come to this either after going through many of Chevy's main titles and hits or Carpenter's catalog.
I wondered if I might be indifferent to it, and was happily surprised by the quality of the special effects for the time, which show that JC had more of a budget to play with that usual and his crew did great work with him, and that the drama worked, the bits of comedy worked and the exploitation of the sci-fi genre part of it worked most of all. It's a well-oiled basic B movie elevated with A list talent.
Last but not least is a wild piece of trivia to me: it may be notable for some of you that this is one of the only times Carpenter didn't also compose the music for the film, but what you didn't know (thanks imdb) is that Shirley Walker, suggested by Chevy by the way so for once good on him, was in composing and orchestrating the score the first woman to have that title on a major Hollywood movie. By 1992. Holy (invisible voice says expletive) people!