This review may contain spoilers.
I had a really good time with The Invite. This is Olivia Wilde's latest film as a director, and she also stars alongside Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton. It's basically a chamber piece, meaning almost the entire movie takes place in one apartment and lives or dies on the dialogue and performances. I think they absolutely pull it off. The setup is pretty simple. You have a middle-aged couple with a twelve-year-old kid whose relationship has gone stale. They're not really having sex anymore, they're constantly picking at each other, and they're just sort of existing together instead of really living together. Upstairs are their neighbors, who have an extremely active sex life that everyone in the building can hear. The husband wants to complain. The wife seems a little too interested in what's going on upstairs. Eventually she invites the neighbors over for dinner, and from there hilarity ensues. I think this movie is very funny. It's stressful, it's awkward, it's cringey in ways that are actually relatable, and there's a lot of oversharing from all four adults. As dinner goes on, people start revealing things about themselves and about what's been happening in the building, and the tension just keeps building. It reminded me a little of Obsession in that way. Obviously they're completely different movies, but this one keeps you engaged by continually upping the ante. You're always wondering where this is going and what is actually motivating these characters. One thing I really liked is that they're not trying to convince you that you're watching a good guy and a bad guy and a good girl and a bad girl play things out. Everybody has their own motivations. Everybody has flaws. Nobody comes across as an awful person, but nobody comes across as perfect either. I think the movie actually encourages you to like everybody who's participating, even when they're making questionable decisions. That reminded me of The Drama, except in The Drama I thought most of the people were actually kind of terrible. Here, they're just flawed adults trying to navigate complicated relationships. Seth Rogen is the star of this movie for me. I was talking with friends afterward, and honestly I don't think anybody else could have played this role as well as he did. He's basically the voice of the audience. Whenever things get incredibly tense or awkward, he's the one saying what everybody else is thinking. He keeps the movie funny without ever becoming the hero or the villain. He's just reacting to the insanity unfolding around him, and so much of the humor comes out of his mouth. If not Seth Rogen, then Penélope Cruz. She's always charismatic on screen, but she really seemed to be enjoying herself here. Olivia Wilde also deserves a lot of credit. Her character is completely stressed out, neurotic, insecure, and doesn't really know what she wants anymore. She reminded me a lot of Rose Byrne's performance in If I Had Legs I'd Kick You last year, where she plays a mother who's slowly being driven insane by the pressures of her family life. It's that same manic energy where somebody is just barely holding themselves together, and I thought Olivia Wilde did an excellent job with it. Edward Norton is good here too. I just don't think he stands out the way the other three do. Olivia Wilde is doing the most work dramatically, Seth Rogen is the most indispensable character in the movie, and Penélope Cruz is absolutely perfect in her role. I also think the marketing oversold how risqué this movie is. They talk about sex a lot because that's what the movie is about, but there's really nothing graphic here. Nothing pornographic. Nothing visually over the top. The R rating comes almost entirely from the dialogue and the subjects they're discussing. This is really a comedy for adults because it's about adult relationships, not because kids and teens need to be protected from it. The resolution here reminded me a lot of The Drama, in that it doesn't try to explain everything neatly at the end. It leaves enough possibilities open that you can imagine where these characters go from here. I think filmmakers have gotten better about trusting audiences to finish the story themselves instead of spelling everything out, and I like that. I enjoyed this from beginning to end. I came away eager to see whatever Olivia Wilde does next because I think she just has good instincts as a filmmaker. She brings good energy, good ideas, and she knows how to keep you engaged for two hours. I look forward to her next project Naughty, whenever that arrives.