Film Review - The Invite
Images courtesy of VVS Films.
The Invite is about relationships, how we see couples, how they perceive us, and what we all choose to judge about one another. It’s a significant cinematic turnaround for director Olivia Wilde whose last film, the Harry Styles starring Don’t Worry Darling, with its rather dull direction and messy handling of themes, left a lot to be desired. The film is an English language remake of the Spanish film, The People Upstairs, and, including only four speaking roles and one location, The Invite can only be as good as its cast. But oh, does the cast deliver.
The film opens with a quote from the Oscar Wilde play A Woman of No Importance that perfectly encapsulates The Invite: ‘One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.’ The marriage of Angela and Joe (Wilde herself and Seth Rogen) is crumbling – the latter used to write songs about the former – and at least in Angela’s eyes, she’s unlooked at and unloved. Their relationship is the complete opposite of Hawk and Pína’s (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz), whose sex is so loud that their orgasms can be heard perfectly clear by the downstairs couple, much to the dismay of Joe. Thus, when the two couples come face-to-face for the first time at Angela and Joe’s apartment for a dinner party, organised by the frantic Angela, there is all sorts of tension in the air.
Cut from the same cloth as Mike Nichols’ academy award winning Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – an inspiration The Invite does not care to shy away from – only four characters grace the screen. All four performers give their absolute all; no line is delivered flatly and no movement is exaggerated. It’s hard to choose the best of these performances, but Rogen might just be the standout, delivering a performance not too dissimilar from his character in his excellent Apple TV show The Studio, angry and anxious.
Wilde’s directing is great, the blocking of shots being absolute perfection. Every corner of the apartment is used to full effect, characters are framed in doorways, mirrors, and through windows. The heavily dialogue driven film constantly feels fresh, with something new to explore at every angle, in every new conversation. Like any great home in film or television, I felt as though I could get a piece of paper out and draw the full layout, that’s how well it’s blocked.
Of course this too can be chalked up to the film's excellent, tightly paced screenplay from writing pair Will McCormack and Rashida Jones. It’s full of millennial mid-life panic and every twist and turn of the dual couples' oncoming night affairs is foreshadowed. Most importantly however, the film is just damn funny. In her post-Sundance distribution talks Wilde fought for a theatrical release, and watching The Invite in such an environment affirms the reason why. It’s easy to laugh at, even easier to laugh hard at.
One should not be fooled by that remark though, The Invite is too a moving film. These characters are not some typical comedic film archetypes. They feel real and their struggles, especially those of Angela and Joe, are relatable. From the very film’s beginning you can feel the emotion through Devonté Hynes enjoyable – though at times too on the nose – score that serves as a constant reminder for the anxieties these characters feel. The film does get a tad rocky in its third act as this more serious tone comes to the fore, but it does leave an ending worth watching.
The Invite is a different kind of lewd comedy, there’s no nudity or a truly explicit love scene. Rather, it discusses the lewd, how different couples are sexually. It’ll make you think about your own neighbours; what are they really like behind those closed doors? If they’re anything like Hawk and Pína, you may just want to invite them over for your own dinner party if you’re open-minded enough.
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The Invite is screening in cinemas from Thursday the 9th of July. For tickets and more info, click here.