Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton have a dinner party that goes wrong. If that isn’t reason enough to watch The Invite, then perhaps its brilliance as a movie will convince you.
Joe (Rogen) is a former indie-rock musician turned music teacher whose marriage to Angela (Wilde) is on thin ice. When he comes home from work one night, he discovers that his wife has invited their noisy upstairs neighbours over for dinner. They end up arguing because Joe wants to confront the neighbours about their very loud sex, but Angela doesn’t want him to say anything. Piña (Cruz) and Hawk (Norton) arrive for dinner right after the fight and are immediately subjected to a tense situation. Naturally, the dinner party spirals, and the night takes several unexpected turns.
Right from the start, it’s obvious that The Invite is going to be an emotional experience. It’s a chamber film that takes place entirely in Joe and Angela’s apartment, so it relies heavily on sharp, witty dialogue and an engaging narrative to captivate audiences. Thankfully, the screenplay helmed by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack has both of these things, in addition to being easy to follow and flowing perfectly.
The Invite also features some great one-liners, especially those from Rogen, that make you laugh out loud. However, as the evening’s events unfold, the film becomes brutally honest to the point where it’s unclear whether it’s more appropriate to laugh or cry. (It’s okay to do both.)
There’s one scene in particular I don’t want to say much about because it’s the turning point of the film, but it genuinely causes a lot of secondhand embarrassment. It’s funny in the moment until you realise how heartbreaking it actually is, when things are no longer about getting through the dinner party but rather trying to fix Joe and Angela’s broken relationship. This is where Wilde really nails it as the director—the way she’s able to take this rather intense situation and make it feel completely real and relatable to the audience. It doesn’t feel over-dramatic by any means.
The casting decision also helps here. Because The Invite has such a character-driven story, not casting the right actors could have been detrimental to making this situation feel as believable as it does. But the casting is spot-on. Wilde is fantastic as the people-pleasing Angela who wants to find the spark in her marriage again, and she really makes you feel her character’s anxiety stemming from that.
Rogen is excellent as her counterpart, playing a self-pitying former rocker who now feels stuck in life. While he’s played similar characters before, there’s a certain depth to Joe that I don’t think he has explored until now. In contrast, Norton gives one of his strongest performances in years as the free-spirited former firefighter Hawk. That includes a gripping monologue about his character’s backstory. Next to him, Cruz perfectly portrays Piña, a Spanish sexologist who oozes confidence. Pairing the two of them as a happy, unmarried couple isn’t something I would have thought of doing, but it works well.
In the end, The Invite is a very human story that audiences will resonate with. It’s also intimate, character-driven, and wildly entertaining. I hope it will become more than a hidden gem, but a true classic.
★★★★ 1/2
In UK and Irish cinemas from July 3rd / Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton / Dir: Olivia Wilde / Black Bear Pictures / 15
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