A wicked comedy with an earnest core.

Joe and Angela, husband and wife, live together in an apartment. They bicker and frustrate each other regularly. But this evening Joe is especially surprised; Angela has invited their upstairs neighbours to dinner…

Directed by Olivia Wilde, written by a writing team including Rashida Jones (Parks & Recreation) The Invite is a unique comedy. Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton in performances that ripple with chemistry. What kind of chemistry? All kinds.

The actor/director Wilde has said on record as saying that making the movie has restored her love of acting and movie-making. Certainly, it does stand out from the crowd when it comes to comedies.

The film opens with quite a punchy seventies-style opening credits, with duo Angela and Joe (Wilde and Rogen) towards the end of a normal day. Joe returning from a music class that he is resentful of, and Angela decorating their flat and preparing food. Upon Joe entering the flat, they spin into a wild argument that is intense and rapid-fire. But there’s no time; their upstairs neighbours are arriving any minute with Angela’s invitation.
What transpires is a meeting of minds. Dozens of misinterpretations. Insinuations. Hidden agendas, secrets, and an invitation that isn’t just for dinner.

The film has a good trailer. It is provocative, but it doesn’t tell you what the film is. It could be a horror for all we know. The spiky, uncomfortable home environment. The arriving of two strangers and suggestive comments… Maybe it is best to say that there are spoilers in this review. But the short of it is: The Invite is a very good relationship comedy. It is by-and-large a comedy, although it does have a strong dramatic, earnest pulse under the surface.
The film is a single location with a cast of only four. It could easily be depicted as a theatre play. As a result, it already has plus points. Our leads are unique characters with their own thoughts and plans for their evening. The meat of the movie lurks in each character’s interplay with the others, as well as some laugh-out-loud tripwire dialogue.

Seth Rogen is doing, mostly, his “Seth Rogen” thing. He easy has some of the most blunt one-liners throughout the movie, which works wonderfully with everyone else’s measured dialogue. He’s the cynical, bummed-out, married man. Next to him is Olivia Wilde being a stay-at-home wife who is stressed and seeking an emotional outlet. She bounces around with manic energy, goofier than it sounds.
Edward Norton, playing an ex-fireman (firefighter) called Hawk, is immediately clocked by Joe as a vapid “poser”. His partner, Penélope Cruz, as a more dangerous and analytical air.

And everyone is incredibly horny for each other.

The film is a comedy, but could be misunderstood with some of the character’s agendas. A big one, that headlines the movie with an Oscar Wilde quote, is about loveless marriages. More than that, that marriage and sticking together relentlessly is damaging for one’s self-worth and self-love. We see it in Rogen and Wilde’s performance, and they are juxtaposed with the sexually-liberated couple they invited to dinner.

Joe and Angela are painfully heterosexual. The de facto example of straight couples flying apart at the seams. A lot of the comedy comes from the outrageous things that their neighbours get up to. It is very funny, especially when the closeted couple realize what is going on with Pina and Hawk, and lean into it with fascination.

But there’s a push and pull of comedy and societal subtexts and gender norms. A particularly spiky scene involves Joe’s discovery that his wife more than once walked around naked knowing Hawk could see her. Naturally, Joe is horrified and alienated. Alienated because everyone else is okay with it, especially Pina, who frames it as sexually liberating for Angela. The film is loaded with these sorts of debate points, usually for light-hearted dismantling.

Overall, I enjoyed The Invite a lot more than I expected to. Its small cast, single location, witty goofs, and sexual tension keep you hooked throughout. Then just when you think you have it figured out, it’ll punch you with the emotional pay-off.