Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: LO INVISIBLE [Miami International Film Festival 2022 - Virtual]
The context of mental health can come in many forms depending what its inherent reasoning is. But many aspects have nothing to do with reasoning. It is simply chemical that is beyond control except by medication...and that in itself requires a certain control which some people can't allow because they feel the need to self medicate. Such is the progression of "Lo Invisible" [Special Presentation] where the lead character who just had a baby seems to be in a rut of both ego, connection, disconnection, paranoia and jealousy, all at the same time. The film does explain that this might have been going on before but post pregnancy, it seems to exacerbate it, maybe even due to solely to post-partum depression itself. Anahí Hoeneisen (who also wrote the film) plays Luisa, a woman perhaps surrounding by comfort but isolated in her head as well as in her exuberant space. She doesn't seem happy at all and actively tries to subvert everything she does. This might be hormonal but also be a regulated part of her personality which she is unable to control. Actions at a party, in a car and in a parking garage seems to go beyond the aspect of what the film is trying to portray. This is not to say it isn't true. "Lo Invisible" is just a more extreme version of it.
Whether there is a channeling of Freud or Hamlet in a way, there is a sense that no matter what is done, the pain will continue. Javier Andrade who directed and is part of a filmmaking team with Hoeneisen knows that the warts and all approach is the correct one. We see the lucid Luisa. We see the intellectual Luisa. We see the fun Luisa. We see the out of control Luisa. They are all part of her but it just depends if this is one they are willing to live with. At one point she points out everyone's history in the house to a girl who might have overstepped over the line. Luisa however leaps over that line but does not turn the microscope on herself. Perhaps the person that knows her best is her Nana of sorts who has the foreshadowing of sense and the heart to know what is happening, though she is powerless to stop it. Granted the build of the story doesn't take into explaining the fact too much of what provides the opulent lifestyle and the bodyguards needed but that is simply another facet which in many ways might be part of the issue as well. "Lo Invisible" is able to create that sense of claustrophobia even in a sense of a universe where "the world is yours". B
By Tim Wassberg
