An Invisible Sign

{{short description|2010 film} by Marilyn Agrelo}}

An Invisible Sign is a 2010 American drama film directed by Marilyn Agrelo and starring Jessica Alba, Chris Messina, John Shea and J. K. Simmons. Based on the 2001 novel An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender, the film is about a painfully withdrawn young woman who, as a child, turned to math for comfort after her father became ill, and now as an adult, teaches the subject and must help her students through their own crises.

The film received negative reviews from critics and grossed $51,138 at the box office.

Plot
Mona Gray systematically withdraws from life into a world of mathematics after a mysterious mental illness leaves her father incapacitated and a shell of his former self. Forced by her mother to move out on her own, Mona gets a job as a math teacher at an elementary school. There she discovers she has an unorthodox talent for teaching and finds herself thrust back into life again, with children to care for, and a reason to live. Mona takes special interest in one of her students, Lisa Venus (Sophie Nyweide), whose mother is dying of cancer.

When fellow teacher Ben Smith shows romantic interest in her, Mona reverts to some of her old self-destructive impulses. Eventually, Mona discovers her value in the love she shows her students, and she and Ben find love in each other.

Production
Aimee Bender's 2001 novel An Invisible Sign of My Own was adapted for the screen by The Wedding Planner scribes Michael Ellis and Pamela Falk. Filming locations included Steiner Studios and Tarrytown, New York.

Release
An Invisible Sign premiered at the 18th Hamptons International Film Festival on October 7, 2010. It was released through video on demand on April 1, 2011, and premiered in theaters on May 6, 2011.