The Invite is a dramedy from the dinner-party-gone-awry genre about a marriage and whether a sex party might save it – or will it make it go boom? It’s extremely savvy, very funny and packs an emotional punch. It stars Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton – and if there is more pleasure to be had than watching great actors behaving badly, I would genuinely wish to know about it.
If there is more pleasure to be had than watching great actors behaving badly, I would wish to know about it
It opens with a quote from Oscar Wilde: ‘One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.’ (Wilde obviously didn’t know about the tax advantages.) Joe and Angela’s marriage is hanging by a thread. Joe (Rogen), who was once in a rock band, now teaches at a second-rate music school. He arrives home angry at life, angry at his Brompton-style bike: ‘The wheels are so small you have to pedal four times to get one proper wheel rotation out of it.’
He is horrified to discover that she has invited their upstairs neighbours for dinner. She insists that she told him. He insists that she didn’t. They have been married 15 years and fighting is their style. Has he bought the wine as instructed? He has not. Bicker, bicker, bicker. He dislikes these neighbours as they can hear their loud sex noises at night. He dislikes encountering the man in the lift. ‘The eye contact is off the scale.’
