| Unexpectedly, The Invasion is a jarring, terrifying remake of the 1956 and 1978 versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, managing to update the widespread panic of the 1950s - owing to the Cold War and the looming, constant threat of a sneak attack by those nasty Reds - to a new kind of fear, stylized and customized to fit the crazed paranoia of the 2000s. Nicole Kidman gives a pitch-perfect performance as a mother who must stay away for the sake of her uniquely immune child, added a jolt of adrenalin to an already frantic, uncomposed, and passionate treatise on how people react when <more> things go wrong.It all starts with the US Space Shuttle exploding over the country during its return trip, scattering debris in a wide swatch from Dallas to Washington about 200 miles wide. People are warned not to touch the wreckage pieces, but do they listen? Not only don't they listen, but some of the stuff turns up on eBay - the second time this year the online auction service plays a role in a motion picture. But it seems that the debris isn't entirely benign, anymore, as it the astronauts had unwittingly been carrying an alien parasite on the outside of their craft.Soon, those who have touched the debris are contaminated. But they're not killed, no, they're merely turned into shells of themselves, sort of how a viewer feels after watching too much Fox News. Hey, I kid because I love freedom fries. I mean, everyone who's infected is at the same level of emotion, which is to say, none at all; no one even raises an eyebrow. Meanwhile, the grand ol' guvmint decides to get ahead of the curve by inoculating the bejeezus out of everyone - for free! Awfully nice of then, really, although perhaps the fact that they had all that serum should have been a warning sign of sorts.Carol Bennell Kidman is a trained psychologist who has a darling little son on whom she dotes; the father Jeremy Northam left them years ago but has suddenly shown up to reenter the boy's life. Coincidentally, he's also the head of the CDC, which is at the epicenter of this flu pandemic I wanted so bad to say "epicenter of epidemic" there , so naturally he's got some of the bad alien crap on him - handed to him, somewhat ham-handedly, by someone who found it at a crash site. Soon there's a race against, well, not time, but something, as dear ol' dad and his zombie-like cohorts try their damndest to get to carol and Oliver.Joining the intrepid shrink is her best bud/wannabe lover Ben Daniel Craig , who's a doctor or something and who has a serious case of the yabba-yabba-do-mes for Carol, but the feeling's not entirely reciprocated, on account of Carol doesn't want to lose the wonderful friendship they've built up they live next door to each other, the carpool . Groan. Points for plausibility, but negative points for obviousness and needlessness. On top of that, there's an issue with the romantic chemistry between the slight Brit and the willowy Aussie; they actually SEEM more like they should be best buds and nothing more. When the kiss, the Earth doesn't tremble, it yawns and asks for another beer.But forget the romantic angle, and let's focus on the escaping-from-bad-people-who-look-like-our-friends angle. As with the first two filmings of the Jack Finney novel, people fall victim to the virus when they fall into sleep, as their cells are attacked during the body's REM cycle. So now you know the plan: Stay Awake. The very first scene in the movie slams this point home, as a raccoon-eyed Kidman scurries around a devastated drugstore, looking to score uppers and caffeine, anything to keep Morpheus or the Sandman from getting her. And she's damn convincing at it, too, which says a lot about Kidman's abilities; she's a tremendous actress who can play a variety of roles, which is in itself tough to believe of someone who's so elegant and luxuriant in appearance. Kidman's so good that her acting - I know, go figure - completely distracts you from the fact that she's gorgeous. Even when she's dressing down, or when she looks like a crack whore desperate for another fix - she radiates sincerity.Here's a question - how come, when people are infected by this alien virus, they gain the speed of, well, zombies? Shouldn't they be as fast as they were in the Before Time? The people here are one step away from full-on shambling, which makes you think it'd be fairly easy to get away from them - except that there are a LOT of them. In one scene, a good thirty of the mindless bastards jump on Carol's car to prevent her escape, and off she barely drives, losing more as she veers. Brought to mind the whole clowns-in-a-Volkswagen trick.The Invasion is spectacular, a realistic-seeming, fervent example of what might happen were the Earth to suffer a colossal pandemic. Remember, they've been talking about a flu pandemic for many years! Nicole Kidman is, as usual, awesome; you're as scared for her and her progeny as Carol is. <less> |
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