‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ (PG-13)

What you see is what you get when it comes to the "Memoirs of an Invisible Man." A light romantic adventure with Chevy Chase as its transparent hero, it's mainly about special effects sleight of hand, a lot of oh-wow gimcracks that prove the obvious: Chase is all too easily seen through. He's not really acting, he's playing grown-up peekaboo.

Based on a first novel by H.F. Saint, "Memoirs" is not a remake of the 1933 morality tale, but a yuppie mea culpa movie about a stock analyst whose self-indulgence renders him as ephemeral as the electronic transfer of funds. A fellow without values, community interests or family ties, he vanishes like cigar smoke through a vent in the boardroom. As his nemesis, a covert operative played by Sam Neill, observes: "He has the perfect profile {for spying}, he was invisible before he was invisible."

Chase becomes the subject of Neill's Invisible Man-hunt after his molecules are fluxed (or maybe it was flushed) in an accident at Magnascopic Research Laboratories, a company with investment potential and big government connections. Hung over after a night of carousing, Chase slips away from a boring lecture for a nap in an executive suite. On awakening, he is astounded to see that parts of the building have become invisible, as has his still intact, freshly buffed body. Outside Neill's team of special agents hear his screams and quickly deduce that Chase is the greatest asset to espionage since the knothole.

But when Neill attempts to capture him, the Invisible Man easily eludes him. That only persuades the agent that Chase is invaluable to the cause for truth, justice and the American way of life. Equipped with infrared goggles and other high-tech paraphernalia, Neill continues to pursue his quarry, who by now has found a staunch ally in Daryl Hannah, a woman he met and fell in love with the night before the accident. Hannah and Chase make a sweet couple, but we can't help wondering what she sees in him. As the hero himself points out, they'd be the perfect couple, if she were blind. At least then the movie would be about something.

As adapted by screenwriter Robert Collector, Dana Olsen and William Goldman, the film isn't sure what, if anything, it wants to say. While they pay lip service to the hero's social alienation, clearly they'd really rather write Chase scenes, narrowly amusing escapes pitting Neill against the leading man. Mechanically directed by scare-meister John Carpenter ("Halloween"), these sequences lack momentum and suspense. Ironically, this is also due to Neill's estimable acting skills. A veteran of such films as "My Brilliant Career" and "Plenty," Neill doesn't play a ruthless villain, but an operative obsessed with his mission.

If Chase's character has a motive, it's evidently to get laughs, which he does especially when coping with the slapstick problems of everyday invisibility, like kissing when your partner can't find your lips. "I never realized how important it is to be seen," he says in a moment that is tender only when compared with one of Frank Perdue's chickens.

Chase, whose production company developed the project, hasn't quite made the leap from camera-mugging boob to sensitive romantic lead. Even with Hannah beside him in bed, he seems to be less interested in stroking her than the lens.