Movie Review - An Invisible Sign

This was one of those movies that shows the main character at a low point in their lives.  Unfortunately this movie show our main character so low in her life you wonder if it is ever going to get better.

The movie is called An Invisible Sign IMDB - Post.

This film stars the very attractive Jessica Alba as Mona Gray.  We start with Mona as a young woman and we build a great relationship with her family.  She is especially close to her father a math professor who one day has some sort of medical emergency and is no longer all there in the head.

Mona obsessed with the idea that she can somehow make her father better if she could just act a certain way or find a perfect number.  Mona spends the rest of her childhood with this concept stuck in her head.  We quickly find out that the grown up Mona has not actually lived her life.  She has been trapped in her own little world trying to make her father better through her own actions.

Her mother seeing this decides enough is enough, and kicks her out of the house.  She forces her to get an apartment and find a job to support herself.  Her mother tells a few lies to get her into the school as a kindergarten math teacher.  This is where I would expect the hilarity to begin, (sort of like a Kindergarten Cop with Schwarzenegger screaming "It's not a tumor") however her time as a teacher is just really awkward to watch as she gets bullied and teased by the children and some of their parents.

One of the Ben Smith a fellow teacher notices her and begins to fall in love with her.  This budding romance is totally eclipsed by Mona's odd almost obsessive compulsive disorder behavior.  She can't admit to herself that she can have feelings for anyone other than her father.

Ben Smith as played by Chris Messina is a very cool science teacher who is lighthearted and funny.  Chris is nothing if not persistent, he continuously flirts with Mona to get her attention.

There are some really great actors in this movie and the acting is actually quite great, it just the writing that throws me here.  Among one of my favorites is John Shea who plays Mona's father, he is best know for his role as Lex Luthor in the TV series Lois and Clark: The new adventures of Superman.  He does a superb job playing the mentally unstable father.  We also have J.K. Simmons perhaps best know for his role as J. Jonah Jameson from the Spiderman Trilogy movies.  He plays Mona's math teacher in the elementary school where she is now teaching.  He is very quirky and interesting to watch in this role.

Despite the great acting I found myself physically cringing during certain scenes and simply uncomfortable with others.  Despite the fact that this movie does have a happy, if somewhat unrealistic ending does not save it from my chopping block.  It feels like by the time you get to the happy you have been dragged through the shit for so long your just glad the movie is over with.

For the many reasons that I have listed above I have to rate this movie two smiley Mike heads.