Released in the same year as Kick Ass, Griff the Invisible is also about a wannabe superhero. Working in an office at day, bullied and seen as weird by his coworkers, Ryan Kwanten's character assumes the identity of Griff the Protector at night. Doomed to be forever weird, his salvation comes in the form of another weird person, played by the ridiculously beautiful Maeve Dermody, who falls for him as the only person who is like her that she has met.Now, I can't really say if I liked the movie or not. I loved the idea of the invisibility cloak made by soaking a suit in invisible ink and other quirky ideas like that, but in the end we are talking about weird romance and not superheroes, a switch that comes into play around the middle of the film. If you feel out of place in the "real world" you might feel the vibe that connects you to the characters, but the underlying drama of it all made me feel more uncomfortable than I would have wanted. Is Griff insane or not? And if yes, is that OK if he found the girl willing to love and enable him in his insanity? Watch the film and answer for yourself.

Griff (Ryan Kwanten) is a doormat at his place of employment. One co-worker in particular bullies him and piles a great deal of his work onto Griff. But, at night, Griff gets some revenge. This affable but quiet young adult man dresses up in a homemade superhero costume and chases the bad guys away from his immediate neighborhood. Very clever, Griff has hooked up a viewing system to see crimes outside his building and, when needed, he swoops in. You'd have to think that the perps are surprised at his actions but they usually stop and run. Of course, this does not really sit well with the local police force. In fact, they hang posters up looking for the loner hero. Even Griff's handsome brother Tim comes to live in the same town, to keep an eye on his odd sibling. One day, Tim happens to meet a lovely lady, Melody (Maeve Dermody) and, after one date, he tells Griff that she is THE ONE. Yet, Maeve is not certain, being a bit unusual herself and still living at home. Lo and behold, when Tim brings Melody to Griff's apartment for a how-do-you-do, Melody almost instantly prefers Griff, making for big problems ahead. Never having head a real romance, will Griff respond to Melody's charms, and, hurt his own brother? Will G give up his superhero acts? This is quite an unusual film from Australia but rather enjoyable for those who like things a bit different. The viewer doesn't truly understand how, even with a costume, Griff stops crime or that when he claims to be invisible, he is still in plain sight. Yet, it doesn't matter. No one in the States will recognize the actors at this point but they are all fine. Sets, costumes, a winning script and an amusing direction make this a fun little indie. If you can see from this description that it might suit you, go get Griff.

For every Batman out there, who's got gobs of money and gadgets galore to do his crime fighting for him, how many other self-anointed superheroes make do with homemade costumes and gadgets that can be pieced together with plunder from the local hardware store? That's the question "Griff the Invisible" poses at its start, introducing us to a quiet, painfully shy office worker who takes the law into his own hands when the sun goes down. But what at first seems like it's going to be a quirky riff on the superhero formula goes in surprising, and surprisingly serious, directions, and gives us instead a movie about what it means to be normal in a world that can be anything but.Ryan Kwanten buries his natural good looks under a socially awkward persona and gives a sweet, painful performance as Griff. He plays Griff rather like a benign version of Travis Bickle, Robert De Niro's uber-scary character in "Taxi Driver," an unassuming guy who's completely out of touch with the world around him and goes home at night to entertain fantasies about being the hero in the drama of his own making.Of course "Taxi Driver" goes into far darker places than "Griff the Invisible," and that's actually one of the things I didn't like about the latter movie. Griff's adherence to a fantasy world isn't healthy and shouldn't really be humored as his girlfriend suggests it should. How long before illusion and reality blur in the head of someone like that, with who knows what kinds of consequences? But the movie isn't interested in discussing that particular question at any length, which makes for a happier, sweeter ending, if a somewhat dishonest one.Grade: A-

Griff The Invisible is a lovely story about Griff (Ryan Kwanten – True Blood) and Melody (Maeve Dermody – Beautiful Kate) who live in their own solitary worlds. They come together when they discover they are a like with their passion for the impossible.Griff is a quiet character who gets teased at his office day job. When the sun goes down, he becomes a hero by saving people from random attacks in the night. He goes on a mission to create an invisibility cloak and succeeds. Who would have thought you could make this possible with two simple ingredients. But I'm not going to tell you, you'll have to wait until you see the movie.Melody is a loner and an experimental scientist. She's into physics and tries her hardest to walk through walls as she figures out that there is all this space between matter, so it must be possible. I actually got goose bumps when her hand imprinted in the wall when she first succeeds, hair raising stuff.This is a true Australian style film with lots of humour and great Aussie actors; Patrick Brammall, Toby Schmitz, Marshall Napier and Heather Mitchell.I felt so many different emotions, some I'm not familiar with. I think because they touched a nerve with me i.e. physics and different dimensions, it got me thinking, as I often wonder about this stuff. It was a truly beautiful moment when they realised their uniqueness made them the same. They could relate to each other and communicate on the same level. It is just like in reality, when you meet someone amazing when you least expect it and you both get each other, it's magical.