The Invite
Cast: Seth Rogan, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton
Writers: Will McCormack, Rashida Jones, Cesc Jones(original screenplay)
Director Olivia Wilde
**** and a ½ *’s out of Five Stars
Angela(Olivia Wilde) and Joe(Seth Rogan) have been married for a while and its clear from their interactions at the start. They seem more like old roommates than a couple. She is frantically trying to make things perfect for this evening’s guests. While he just wants to get high in his office and relax. There is a lot of great comedy banter between these two; I could watch a whole comedy sitcom about their characters. Nothing like Pina(Penelope Cruz) and Hawk(Edward Norton) a couple who met while he was a patient at her sexologist office. These two desire each other very much but are not afraid to tell each other that they are attracted to other people. Without giving away too much of what happens. When these four characters meet up, you can sense attraction between the two couples. It’s just played in this realistic situation where they want to be polite about it. But its clear that these four want to have group sex with eachother.
This is a perfect example of a chamber comedy done perfectly. It only is set in one room and features just four actors on screen. These are among my favorite movies including Carnage which featured Jodie Foster, John C Riley, Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as two couples who get together to discuss the fight between their two sons, and Tape with Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke, and Robert Sean Leonard about three high school friends reuniting and a plot of revenge one has for the other. Even the for mentioned Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice plays like chamber drama. Especially in later scenes when the so called orgy is being planned. You need actors that work well like they would do so on stage and if this wasn’t filmed. I could see The Invite doing extremely well in New York’s theater district. Everyone involved in this comedy does a stellar job with their performances. It's like they have been performing this material for years before they even started filming. There are many hilarious moments but the scene where Angela and Joe ask about Pina and Hawk’s sexual escapades got the biggest laughs in the crowd I was in.
Olivia Wilde first directed Booksmart, a movie I was not a fan of but many people were. She followed that up with Don’t Worry Darling, a mystery thriller that got less than glowing reviews. By stripping things back and just make a movie that has really good dialogue (thanks to screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack) and a wonderful cast. Especially Seth Rogan whom I never saw as being an actor in these sort of films but he had some of my favorite lines in this movie.
I'm a proud member of the Minnesota Film Critics Association. Read my bio below.
https://mnfilmcriticsassociation.com/2024/09/25/jasonhemming/
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