Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Olivia Wilde
Starring: Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, Penélope Cruz
It's almost 60 years since Paul Mazursky brought the concept of partner-swapping (or "wife-swapping" as it was known in those more patriarchal times) to the mainstream with his hit film Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, but the practice is still considered taboo. If anything it's even more frowned upon now than in 1969 when the western world was going through a sexual revolution. Today, the idea of a married person having sex with someone other than their own spouse draws the ire of liberals just as much as conservatives (and the likes of Jeffrey Epstein and P Diddy have put a considerably dark stain on the idea of group sex). Mazursky's film may have inspired a brief fad for "key parties" and enlivened suburbia for a few years in the '70s, but we all quickly returned to our boring views around the sanctity of marriage.
And yet there remains a public fascination with partner-swapping and swinging, as evidenced by the success of the 2020 Spanish comedy Sentimental, in which an unhappily married couple is introduced to a world of sexual openness when joined for dinner by the liberated couple from upstairs. So universally resonant is the Spanish movie's theme that it has been remade in Italy (Neighbors), France (Maybe More), Switzerland (The Neighbors from Upstairs), South Korea (The People Upstairs), and now the US as The Invite.
Olivia Wilde directs (from a screenplay by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack) and plays Angela, one half of an unhappy married couple with her husband Joe (Seth Rogen). After marrying Joe, Angela gave up her ambition of becoming a photographer and instead became a stay at home wife and mother, taking care of their now 12-year-old daughter and using her artistic eye to furnish and decorate the impressive apartment the couple inherited from Joe's parents. Joe similarly gave up his musical aspirations, quitting his band an taking a teaching job at an unremarkable college.
You suspect their daughter is all that's keeping Joe and Angela together, and when the kid leaves for a sleepover Angela seizes the opportunity to invite the enigmatic couple from upstairs, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz), to dinner.
Urbane and comfortable in their own skin, Hawk and Pína are everything Joe and Angela aren't. Pína is a therapist (and sexologist), and she speaks like one (at one point she sits herself in a chair and assumes the classic one-leg-over-the-other pose so beloved of movie and TV therapists). Hawk is a former firefighter who now talks like a guru who beamed in from '70s California. Joe views them as a pair of phonies and is openly hostile, but Angela finds them exciting. As the evening progresses and wine is drunk and spliffs are smoked, Hawk and Pína's true intentions towards Joe and Angela become clear...
After the critical and commercial disaster of the ambitious Don't Worry Darling, Wilde has opted for a more low key project for her third directorial effort. A talky comic-drama in a single location (the Spanish original was adapted from Cesc Gay's stage play 'Los vecinos de arriba'), The Invite is the sort of movie most actors would pick for their directorial debut. Whatever lessons Wilde learned from her previous two misfires have stood her well, as she displays a highly impressive ability to ensure The Invite never resembles a filmed play. Her blocking here is excellent, creating entirely new compositions within shots simply by subtly repositioning actors within the frame. Much of the film's dramatic tension and a lot of its comedy is created and enhanced through the movement of human bodies. There is a knockout visual punchline delivered simply by Wilde's character standing up to create a new close-up within what was previously another character's mid-shot. With Booksmart and Don't Worry Darling, Wilde's directorial choices felt showy and distracting; here they are ingeniously delicate (conversely, Devonté Hynes' score draws a little too much attention to itself).
The Invite is the sort of adult-oriented comedy that prospered in the '70s, and there is much of Woody Allen in its DNA (the movie is ambiguously dedicated to a "Diane," who I'm guessing might be the late Keaton). But in Wilde's execution it is very much in the vein of the classic Hollywood comedies of the '30s and '40s. The dialogue is largely unremarkable, but it is the delivery that makes it musical, the four actors riffing off each other here like a great jazz quartet. Not only is it Wilde's best work as a director but it's also her finest performance by some distance. As the Sybil Fawlty to Rogen's Basil, Wilde's Angela is the centre of the drama, the one character determined to see everything goes well so she can escape her numbing reality for one evening. In classic Basil Fawlty fashion, Joe is a man who is unhappy with his lot in life and seems to relish making everyone else similarly uncomfortable, and Rogen manages to be very funny while also being highly unlikeable. Norton and Cruz's roles are more caricaturish in nature, but they pull off their archetypes in amusing fashion.
At close to two hours, The Invite could benefit from some minor trimming, and its final act creates the impression of a party still being thrown after all the interesting guests have left and the keg has run dry. But for at least 90 minutes it's a hoot, a reminder that America is still capable of making comedies for grown-ups. Regardless of your previous thoughts regarding Wilde's talents in front of and behind the camera, The Invite will have you excited for where she goes next.
The Invite is in UK/ROI cinemas from July 3rd.
