Director: Claudia Myers
Writer: Claudia Myers (Screenplay)
Starring: Olivia Thirlby, Alan Ritchson, Jim Gaffigan, Maria Dizzia, Megan Fox, Tito Ortiz
Plot: A young woman who has faded to the point of becoming invisible must find her way back with the help of the one man who can see her.
Runtime: 1 Hour 51 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Slow Paced Fantasy
Story: Above the Shadows starts as Holly (Thirlby) a middle child sees herself literally fade away after her mother’s death, with nobody in life even knowing who she is anymore, growing up she enters the world with the same problems, until one day she finds herself meeting Shayne (Ritchson) a former UFC fighter, the only person that sees her.
Holly sees the chance to bring something to the world, she helps Shayne rebuild his career, giving her a purpose she hasn’t felt in years, but is still left wondering if this will make her visible to the rest of the world.
Thoughts on Above the Shadows
Characters – Holly grew up as a middle child, she saw her life change when her mother dies, leaving her alone in the world, with her friends, family and the world not seeing her anymore, becoming invisible. She has gotten used to be alone in the world before a chance encounter sees her learn that someone else can see her, a fighter who has seen his life start to fall apart. She works with him to try and rebuild his life. Shayne was once one of the biggest prospect in the industry, only for his life to spiral out of control after cheating on his celebrity wife and his fighting to see him lose his reputation. We do see the family of Holly that have gone on their own paths, seeing them not know who Holly is anymore, while bringing us the inside world of the fighting scene.
Performances – Olivia Thirlby in the leading role is the strongest performer in the film, she brings the lonely feeling in her character to life with ease in this film. Alan Ritchson brings the fighting persona to life well, showing us just how hard the after the spotlight could be for a former fighter.
Story – The story here follows a woman that became invisible in life, nobody sees her, she is alone after her mother died as a child, this changes when a fighter sees her, giving her a reason to care about life again, only showing her own insecurity of her only human contact in years. This could be an interesting idea for a movie, with the idea of showing the struggle of dealing with becoming invisible to the world, instead we just have one person who has been through the worst for years, with the reason for her becoming invisible to the world being more interesting than watching her try and put the life of a former fight back together. Sadly, we don’t seem to get into the reason for this happening, only dealing with a quite frankly boring side of the fighting redemption side of everything.
Fantasy/Romance – The fantasy side of this film focuses on the idea of one girl turned woman that has become invisible to the world and everyone around her, dealing with the loneliness of her life, this is interesting, only we don’t get into it enough, with the romance not being that strong either.
Settings – The film does show us how one person can live in a city, where nobody else sees them, we get caught up watching how the world is circling around her.
Scene of the Movie – Studying the family.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Most of the fighting side of things.
Final Thoughts – This is a fantasy idea that could well give us an interesting movie, only for the film to spend too much time on the fighter redemption side of the story.
Overall: Bland fighting film.
