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Written by Jason Green Friday, 16 September 2011 09:14

Don’t let the superhero trappings fool you: Griff the Invisible is a quirky indie romance through-and-through, and a fine one, at that.

If you’ve ever worked a soulless office job, you know that daydreaming can be vital to making it to quitting time, even if you don’t face the kind of abuse and harassment that Tony (Toby Schmitz), a smarmy jerk with a stupid haircut, metes out daily onto the shoulders of Griff , a painfully awkward shipping company phone jockey played with nerdy charm by Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse of HBO’s True Blood). Though he’s bullied by day, by night Griff is the one defending the downtrodden by donning a rubberized suit and defeating thieves and hoodlums as the neighborhood superhero, also conveniently named Griff. This superheroing is nothing new, as Griff’s long-suffering brother (and only friend) Tim (Patrick Brammall) knows all too well. Tim tries to break Griff out of his shell by introducing him to his new girlfriend Melody (Maeve Dermody), but that plan backfires when it turns out Melody is every bit as off-kilter as Griff is. Melody is obsessed with learning how to pass through walls, and when she discovers Griff’s plans for an invisible suit, the two join forces to revel in each other’s arrested development.