A still from ‘The Invite’
| Photo Credit: A24
How much do I love this movie? Let me count the ways. Is it the ferocious acting by the ensemble cast? The smart writing that is funny and razor sharp, slicing into the heart of relationships? The way the apartment, where almost all the action takes place, seems both large and small? Or the use of mirrors and windows to suggest reflection and looking in from the outside?It was all this and more, keeping me furiously engaged throughout Olivia Wilde’s 107-minute The Invite. A remake of Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film, The People Upstairs, itself an adaptation of his stage play, The Invite tells the story of a couple, Angela (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen), whose marriage has reached breaking point thanks to forsaken dreams and disappointments.The Invite (English)Director: Olivia WildeCast: Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward NortonRuntime: 107 minutesStoryline: A couple invites their neighbours to dinner and the evening unravels into a litany of savage puns and unconventional revelations The movie opens with an Oscar Wilde quote — “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” We see Joe teaching music and then going home, travelling on the train with his cycle and then pedalling up a steeply inclined San Francisco road before finally reaching his apartment and promptly lying flat on the floor.Angela seems to be in a frantic rush preparing to host a dinner for their neighbours, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz), who live in the flat upstairs. Joe does not remember Angela telling him about the dinner, which Angela says is only natural as he never listens to anything she says.Angela and Joe argue loudly about the dinner and their guests with Joe complaining of the couple’s loud and noisy sex and insisting he is going to tell Pína and Hawk about it. Angela has gone to enormous trouble for the dinner, from sourcing a special Spanish ham to make Pína feel at home and preparing a soufflé and loaded charcuterie board to buying a new rug and top, much to Joe’s annoyance.Once Pína and Hawk arrive with Pína’s amazing flan, things move into a higher gear. Hawk and Pína tell Joe they admire his blunt way of speaking and Hawk praises the new rug. As the evening progresses, the two couples learn surprising things about each other and themselves, including the fact that there are no perfect relationships.
