‘The Invite’ Is A Charming Mess Of A Movie

With a healthy serving of both stress and humour, Olivia Wilde’s The Invite is a largely successful dramedy that explores the nature of relationships through the lens of a particularly terse dinner party. It’s a film that explores a lot of ideas about partnership and the expectations that come with it, featuring stellar performances from its quartet of performances and a strong grasp of single-location filmmaking. 

Yet despite impeccable comedic timing from all on display, The Invite’s script is a tad overwritten and has very obvious, visible seams in its narrative structure. Perhaps it’s the stress of watching people navigate painful social situations, but the film feels decidedly longer than it actually is – mainly because you can regularly feel it running out of steam towards the end of each act before perking back up again.

The film follows Angela (Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen), a couple living in a gorgeous apartment who are having their upstairs neighbours over for dinner. The pair’s marriage has obviously gone sour, given Joe’s opposition to having the neighbours over at all due to… we’ll call them “noise issues” for the time being. 

Once neighbours Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz) arrive, things are awkward at first. But past the initial awkwardness, Hawk and Pína begin opening up about their sex life – and most keyly, open it up to Angela and Joe. Though eager, the hosting couple’s own issues threaten to get in the way of any such arrangement. 

The Invite’s most impressive element is most certainly its direction, especially given the fact that Wilde also stars in the film. It’s a movie with quite a remarkable sense of control over its space and the people within it, using the gorgeous set to both set up some really fantastic jokes, key emotional moments and build continuous tension. 

The Invite takes time to gain serious momentum

Each actor is also giving a sensational performance here, each filling a different role in the film. Seth Rogen’s mastery over comedic timing has possibly never been better, effortlessly finding the funniest way to deliver his lines every time, which pairs well with Wilde’s extremely nervy and eager-to-impress energy for her guests. 

Edward Norton is the perfectly annoying sort of charming as Hawk, playing one of those guys who just seems too cool to actually be real. The MVP of The Invite, though, is definitely Penélope Cruz as Pína – she can truly do it all, delivering some truly outstanding jokes and moments of sensuality with the same level of commitment, making her truly a delight to watch. 

Yet it’s all a bit squandered by The Invite’s script, which is good but has a few major drawbacks. It takes quite a while to properly gain momentum and hit its stride, and the transitions between acts often feel like a deliberate attempt to reinject life into a film with diminishing returns on its current subject matter. 

It’s also quite an overwritten film, which is not inherently a bad thing, but its initially heightened tone makes the decision to pivot into something more outright sincere in the third act a bit confounding. It’s even more frustrating that this is potentially the best part of the film, with the most interesting commentary on relationships in general.

All that said, The Invite is still a really fun ride. There were very few points where I knew exactly where the film was headed, and the messiness of its structure is certainly part of the charm – and ultimately, I am not immune to great actors delivering sharply written dialogue. 

★★★½

The Invite is screening in competition at Sydney Film Festival before releasing on July 9th.