invitation
Works directed by Olivia Wilde
Screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, based on The People Upstairs, screenplay by Cesc Gay
Starring Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton
Classification 14A; 107 minutes
Limited theatrical release from July 3rd, nationwide release from July 10th
Olivia Wilde plays neurotic party host Angela in The Invite, a sharp marriage comedy in which two couples navigate each other’s boundaries over dinner. Angela, who is married to the amusingly grumpy Joe played by Seth Rogen, often walks around the room with nervous hunched shoulders and bows at guests Piña and Hawk, played mischievously by Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton, respectively.
Angela wants to leave a good impression. She’s baking soufflés and setting up charcuterie boards. She hopes that Piña, a Spaniard, will find Jamon attractive, and that Hawk, a connoisseur of fine decor, will like the luxurious new rug she hastily ordered. She tells Hawke that she happened to find the rug at a flea market, trying to make all of her strict measures look easy. She can’t convince anyone.
Wilde’s character is similar to that of the director whose previous films include the crowd-pleasing coming-of-age comedy “Booksmart” and the complicated marriage thriller “Don’t Worry Darling.” She can also seem eager to make a good impression. Her stylistic flourishes reek of effort, but the contemporaneity of her films is spelled out in all caps.
That’s evident in The Invite’s carefully staged tension and comedy, as two couples solve a lifetime’s worth of marital problems in the same place for one night. The camera thoroughly explores the space of a luxurious San Francisco condo, searching for every interesting and informative angle, placing characters in the apartment and every corner of the frame before isolating them before occupying and commanding the center. The movements here tend to be scripted and calculated, with little room between gag and therapy.
None of this really detracts from The Invite, which turns out to be both hilarious and surprisingly insightful about the issues plaguing modern marriages. The flaws and flaws in this film are not merely tolerable, but fascinating, like lasting marital partners, and perhaps even exposed, given the closeness of Wilde and her character.
From left: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Penelope Cruz, Edward Norton.No credit/AP
The director is returning from his highly publicized breakup with Jason Sudeikis. She is already expressing a kind of exorcism of that pain through art. That personal touch is felt in the screenplay written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, who adapted the Spanish-language film The People Upstairs, which itself was adapted from the stage.
As in the original, a closer-knit couple, in this case Angela and Joe, entertain their neighbors from upstairs. Piña is a therapist and sexologist. Cruise plays her with effortless sensuality, whether she’s relaxing on her joints or standing on 10 toes and making her point about all things sex and relationships. Piña is the one who soothes Angela and all of her anxieties. Just as Cruise’s acting is the furthest thing from Wilde’s studied mannerisms.
Norton’s Hawk, a former firefighter, is polite and entitled, the kind of guy who flaunts empathy and emotional intelligence just to invade people’s comfort zones.
All Angela and Joe really know about their neighbors is that they tend to have surprisingly loud sex, which piques the couple’s curiosity. Angela soon comes out and admits that she is obsessed with Piña’s orgasm. Her orgasm can be heard through the ceiling. Joe, a former musician, is bitter about his current position as an associate professor at the Academy of Music, and is more than a little anxious.
Joe also feels ambushed by Angela’s planned night. She claims she gave him advance notice. He doesn’t remember that and seems to resent her efforts for the new guest. He even threatened to raise his own issue about hearing loud jolts and groans coming from upstairs when Piña and Hawk returned, either out of malice or out of genuine concern that his 12-year-old daughter, Sadie, would hear them.
Sadie is having a slumber party, so she’s free to lay everything out on the table this night. Of course, that’s where much of the comedy comes from, coupled with the secondary invitations and suggestions that liven up the evening. I won’t go into detail about what’s going on, but anyone who’s seen the trailer will know what’s hidden in plain sight.
The Invite stretches plausibility in terms of how quickly things move and how far the characters can go in one night as far as pushing each other’s limits and exploring their relationships with each other. Still, I can’t help but appreciate how many bases are covered in the sparring between this uniformly excellent cast, and how many of the issues that plague our relationships with ourselves and those around us are reflected. For example, this is a rare film that at least deals with the broader effects of perimenopause, the lack of priority given to women’s sexual health in medical settings, and the impact that has on relationships.
This is also a movie that tries to make its own comedy quite complicated. Rogen reveals new layers as a comic performer, and tends to get the most laughs as Joe, usually with gags criticizing or mocking Angela’s nervous behavior or histrionic displays. But there is emotional violence in that comedy. In the way Joe uses humor to hide his self-pity and resentment. He can see through his wife, but is very curious about what she needs.
These are some of the surprising facts revealed in The Invite. The rewards are honest, if not easy.
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