- Title: The Invite
- IMDb: link
Easily comparable to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, both in its subject manner and its origins and staging from a stag play, The Invite is nothing more or less than an evening two couples spend together leading to arguments, arousal, suffering, and, ultimately, something nearing understanding. Although at times uncomfortable, it’s an evening you don’t want to miss.
Far more comedic than Edward Albee’s 1962 play, but in the end perhaps equally as melancholy, The Invite opens by introducing us to failed musician Joe (Seth Rogen) and his equally miserable wife Angela (Olivia Wilde, who also directs) arguing about the impending dinner party they are hosting that evening (which Angela may or may not have informed Joe about) for their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton).
What follows is an awkward evening as Wilde and the rest of the cast lean into surprising and embarrassing moments including an unexpected proposition from their dinner guests. With Wilde cast as the rundown and haphazard, but still hopeful, Amanda, Cruz gets to play the more worldly, and sexually adventurous, Pína).
As always, Rogen is Rogen (although I like him more here than I have in some time). With Wilde directing one can’t help but wonder if there’s any inspiration from Jason Sudeikis in his smart-ass performance. Norton gets the hardest role of the ridiculous former firefighter Hawk. He starts the film as a walking punchline for Joe, but Norton eventually imbues the character with some much needed heart during a speech that Norton himself reportedly added himself to explain Hawk’s backstory.
The Invite is the kind of small intimate film requiring a handful of actors, a solid script, and no special effects that has fallen out of favor of Hollywood’s chase of the next big blockbuster too big to fail. You can still feel the imposed structure of Cesc Gay’s play, but screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones do well adapting it to film while Wilde’s allowance to let the actors improvise even in pivotal moments brings to life a film equally lived-in and surprising.
