The Invite Review

What's love if a not a war for peace that never ends?

Olivia Wilde’s The Invite is the adult dramedy many of us have been craving this decade. A propulsive riot of angst and resentment, it’s a hilarious ticking time bomb ready to explode at any second. Taking influence from the wonderful works of Mike Nichols and Woody Allen, we are greeted with our millennial version of Who’s Afraid of Virgina Wolfe?, which feels like a very personal story for Wilde, begging us, the audience, to wonder: what happens when that spark goes out? When that young love you thought would burn infinite has slowly gone out, and the wax has covered the candlestick holder, is there an easy way to reignite it? I know what can fix all our existential love problems: our hot neighbors coming over for an unplanned dinner party! There’s nothing I love more than adults trapped in a room having adult conversations and feeling the tension between them build up inside. The audience is invited into a sleekly directed comedy of errors among adults who all feel lost in distinct ways, trying to guide themselves toward the correct answer, even if there might not be one. It’s sexy, it’s smart, and it’s just an electric theater experience that had the whole crowd I was with hooting and hollering. You don’t want to miss this one.

The Invite follows failed musician Joe (Seth Rogen) one evening as he returns home from work to his stay-at-home wife, Angela (Olivia Wilde), who has sprung a surprise dinner for them with their neighbors. Joe and Angela are clearly in a bad spot with their marriage, with their constant arguing and bickering over the loud sex their neighbors have. The neighbors, Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), arrive for dinner, and chaos ensues as secrets and emotions run high between the couples. Brutally honest conversations about each other’s marriages and sex lives lead to an opportunity that Joe and Angela must decide: Will this fix us?

I’d love to gush about these performances first and about how well this small ensemble’s chemistry is out of this world and how they play off each other immaculately. Still, I need to begin with Wilde’s direction, which is revelatory here. The way Wilde has perfectly crafted every angle of this apartment to help us, the audience, feel the tension between the parties involved is sublime. Wilde here has perfectly executed the spatial awareness needed for such a small cast to flourish. Every glance, every subtle movement, and the spaces between each move closer or farther away with the chosen frame, are just a complete, intimate insight into the feelings, motivations, and thoughts of couples here. I think combining Wilde’s excellent direction with the perfectly timed comedic editing done here by Yorgos Mavropsaridis and Anthony Boys is a match made in heaven. The choices and the space to know where everyone is and how they relate to each other, to lift the deliveries of some of these lines and build either sexual tension or resentment in the room, filling up like a hot air balloon, are just stellar. The editing and direction are sleek and fast, and there’s a fantastic rhythm that builds, like the jazzy score, pushing the film’s momentum like a roller coaster through unwieldy turns and dives that have you holding on to the seat of your pants.

Will McCormack and Rashida Jones’ intelligent script, based on the Spanish film The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay, works in tandem with all I have mentioned. The script is cutting and genuine. It delves into uncomfortable, open spaces that many people searching for some form of happiness try to grasp. Some more successfully than others. Are my failures my partner’s failures as well? Am I searching for something physical that will enlighten me and bring me back that spark of joy, be it in bed or just in life? Am I really living anymore, or just going through the motions? Because I believe that’s all there really is. These questions are tapped into beautifully, yet somehow hilariously and audaciously in their serious material. I’m also obsessed with the look of this apartment and the film as a whole, thanks to Adam Newport-Berra’s cozy cinematography. I want to be at this dinner party despite the conflict brewing all around me and try out the million different cheeses that Angela picked out for the night. There’s a certain layer of texture of how lived-in and how well each party knows the other that breaks through the screen. All so authentic.

What the hell have I been doing this whole time, and not even mentioning performances!!! Rogen, Wilde, Cruz, and Norton are all playing off each other like the Showtime Lakers. Rogen’s grumpy, begrudging attitude totally grounds the ridiculousness. It makes him come across as a real adult, with pain and regret in his career that he feels ashamed he may have squandered. Wilde’s controlling and obsessive need to be the perfect host stems from her partner’s lack of passion, and the absurd faces and reactions she pulls off here are incredible. Here, she’s a comedic gem and the funniest of the foursome physically. Cruz is so intimidatingly hot and intense, dropping hilarious banger after banger line, just keeping us on our toes with whatever she’s going to say next. Norton is so fucking funny. Sorry, I’ve totally dropped the professionalism in this review because Norton gives off an all-time chill, progressive dude who is totally trying to sleep with everyone vibe that’s so weird and sexy at the same time. Just a chill, seductive dude with something off about him that’s so alluring. The way all four are completely bought into the script and direction, and able to play off each other while the camera sees them through a bedroom window or across the way, has me on the edge of my seat, eager to see where the night takes us. All hilarious, it ultimately leads to a place that’s quite heartbreaking and moving by the end, and crazy- this film truly has it all and balances it so well.

As much as I cried laughing at the absurdity of this dinner party, by the end, I felt completely shattered. To see our two leads, Rogen and Wilde, go through a ringer of the night of reveals and secrets and possible group sex (which, again, the accuracy of the discussions around that is too accurate) to myself crumbling in my seat as I see this relationship reach its ultimate destination left me a tad distraught. To desire to be desired is something you deserve. Sometimes the spark does go out. The fire stops burning, and that’s okay. Those joyous times together still happened, and that love was real. There’s no quick cure, and no Dutch boy’s finger in a dam will hold off the wave of resentment ready to crash through. Those years weighed heavily, but it’s okay to love again and be a person again. Anyway, this movie is a blast, and I can’t recommend this chamber pot of lust and hilarity enough. The adult comedy is officially back.

Final Score: 9/10

Written by Kevin J. Pettit