Review of An Invisible Sign (2010) by Jerry H — 29 Mar 2012

I'm not a big Jessica Alba fan. Sure, she is cute, but her roles are usually too sultry for me, which seems to be right on par with how she comports herself. One need look no farther than Into the Blue to see why most male moviegoers only look at her lecherously, whereas I refuse to look at any female that way, even if she is an actress.

Still, I could tell by the cover of An Invisible Sign that this was different from Ms. Alba's usual work. Did that make for a good movie? Well...not quite. It's good to see a movie that praises mathematical ability, as well as one that stresses the importance of numbers; love it or lump it, numbers and math are in pretty much everything, and they always have been, even before the world went digital.

Numbers also play important roles in countless things: technology, the Dewey Decimal System, even the Biblical book of Revelation, just to name a few. I also thought it was great to see a "PG-13" flick that's not fraught with sexual innuendoes and profanity; that's quite rare, especially in recent times, which makes it all the more surprising that An Invisible Sign was released less than a year ago.

The actors all did very well, even Jessica Alba. However, some significant problems existed. Content-wise, there were a few profanities, some bodily function references and a couple of scary sequences.

Whether there was illicit sex depends on your interpretation of the scenes. One scene shows the film's protagonist walking in on an older couple in bed, but it's never said whether they were married or not.

Elsewhere, the same protagonist is shown in bed with a male friend, but all you see her do is play with his calculator watch, and she appears to be clothed; were they doing anything immoral, or just snuggling? It's unclear.

The film's pace is very pokey, too; I struggled to finish watching it. I have to give the filmmakers credit, though; they wanted to create a unique movie, and they did it. Do the math: Unless you want to see something absolutely strange, or you're a Mathlete and/or Jessica Alba fanatic, I'd have to recommend skipping this one.

Although the content was quite mild for a modern "PG-13," it still isn't a very good movie.