The Invite will be released in select theaters on June 26 before receiving a wide release on July 10.
Olivia Wilde’s double date dramedy The Invite achieves the kind of artistic maturity and formal control that was missing from her first two features, teen comedy Booksmart and scattered sci-fi Don’t Worry Darling. Although a nearly scene-for-scene remake on paper, it’s arguably Wilde’s first good feature for the way it imbues the story of Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish original, Sentimental (or The People Upstairs) — and its subsequent Italian, Swiss, French, and South Korean versions — with energy and intensity from minute one.
Penned by Toy Story 4 scribes Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (yes, the actress), and purchased by A24 after its Sundance bow, The Invite follows a middle-aged couple on the rocks who host their attractive upstairs neighbors for dinner before one thing leads to the next. Its swinger/spouse-swap premise disguises a pressurized tale of domestic discontent, crowbarred open by exotic curiosities. In the process, its impeccably cast characters are forced to leave everything about themselves on the table… or at least, more of themselves than they’re comfortable with. This psychological unspooling holds your attention right up until it can’t; the film eventually peters out, but only near the very end, leaving quite an enjoyable experience in its wake.
Seth Rogen plays Joe, the film’s ostensible protagonist, whose life as a failed pop punk musician in the aughts has given way to a mundane music teaching job in California. He bicycles home at his wife’s behest, leading to a snappy introduction rife with split-screens and other economical tricks that introduce us to his high-strung spouse, Angela (Wilde), who meticulously prepares their apartment for a fancy evening while their tween daughter is away. Unbeknownst to Joe — though according to Angela, he simply forgot — they’re meant to host their idiosyncratic neighbors for an informal dinner, the prospect of which sends the unhappy couple spiraling through never-ending disagreements. Wilde’s 107-minute version (about half an hour longer than the original) smartly delays both the arrival of the guests and their eventual proposition. This allows The Invite to marinate in the awkward atmosphere of a married couple putting on a cheery façade that threatens to crack at any moment. Joe and Angela barely talk to each other anymore, at least not in a way that doesn’t involve petty sniping, and to make matters more uncomfortable, their guests — the frank, filterless firefighter Hawk (Edward Norton) and his free-spirited therapist girlfriend Piña (Penélope Cruz) — see right through their ruse and aren’t afraid to call it out.
Verdict
Despite its noncommittal destination, The Invite makes for a nerve-racking journey for much of its runtime. With fine-tuned performances at her disposal, including her own, Wilde reclaims the title of director with ferocity and vigor, carving a stylized piece of cinema from a story that could’ve so easily been straightforward and simple in its telling. Instead, it becomes an entertaining mirror of romantic disillusionment in middle age and one of the more enjoyable adult dramas out of Hollywood this year.
