Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992) February 15th, 2024
Sometimes renowned directors cast comedic actors against type to great success. Paul Thomas Anderson and Adam Sandler. Gus Van Sant and Robin Williams. Michel Gondry and Jim Carrey. It’s a your chocolate in my peanut butter success story. In the case of John Carpenter and Chevy Chase its more like someone got their chocolate in my gas tank.
Memoirs of an Invisible Man‘s inability to settle on a tone seems like a direct result of the style clash between actor and director. Oscillating between a gritty sci-fi noir film similar in tone to The Fugitive or Mission Impossible and a corny The Naked Gun movie, Memoirs of an Invisible Man would’ve been better off starring a Harrison Ford or Tom Cruise type instead of the laughable Chevy Chase. The role seems to be written for an attractive dramatic actor who can sell tension, milk suspense, and get laughs… when appropriate. Ya know, a leading man type. This is simply outside of Chevy’s wheelhouse.
Chevy’s insufferable bits undercut otherwise serviceable performances by Michael McKean, Daryl Hannah, and Sam Neill. There’s a scene in Memoirs of an Invisible Man where Chevy Chase’s invisible character sneaks into Daryl Hannah’s room for decidedly non-chaste reasons only to witness and covertly intervene when a very visible man attempts to sexually assault her. I’ve got to ask, what would Chevy have done in the room if she had been receptive to sexual advances? I’ve got to assume he would’ve indulged in some problematic voyeurism. In a less icky scene, Chevy’s snooping is blown by an uncontrollable sneeze. This leads to a tense scene Sam Neill plays as straight as an arrow… while Chevy mugs for the camera. Memoirs of an Invisible Man is full of abominable action scenes botched by a monstrous ham.
The list of people Chevy Chase has wronged in Hollywood seems long but I was disappointed to find John Carpenter on this list. It’s a shame that a man who’s made a handful of classic films while pushing special effects and the science fiction genre forward would be stymied by a troll who seemed eager to say the N-Word on TV. File Memoirs of an Invisible Man between unsung oddities and novelty train wrecks but don’t rush out to see it, there’s really no need.
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From IMDB: “John Carpenter has stated that this is his least favorite of all the films he’s directed, and is the film he “hates thinking about the most”. One reason was because of the constant studio interference that didn’t allow Carpenter much creative freedom. Carpenter also called Chevy Chase “a director’s worst nightmare” and “nearly impossible to direct”, also saying the same about Daryl Hannah. According to Carpenter, Chase would complain non-stop about the film’s tone and hated wearing the special effects, often prematurely removing his makeup and ruining hours of filming. At one point, Carpenter broke a clipboard in half over his knee in a fit of rage when Chase removed his makeup mid-take. Carpenter said that Chase and Hannah were “immune to any punishment from the studio, and they knew it, so they walked over me and everyone else on set and essentially told us we’d be replaced if we had any problem with them…it was like working with your boss’s snooty children who would tattle on you if you didn’t bend to their every will.” Despite this, Carpenter ended up bonding and seeking comfort in Sam Neill over the troubling production and the two became close friends, with Neill agreeing to work with Carpenter again on In the Mouth of Madness (1994).”
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