by Nick Ferro, Editor
For some, marriage is hard. For some, marriage is easy. For some, marriage is unnecessary. But for all involved, marriage usually starts with love. Sometimes love is fleeting or fueled purely by lust. Sometimes love is caused by connection and friendship. But the underlying need to love and be loved is inherently human and that is where so many problems seem to stem when it comes to love, sex, and marriage. The Invite opens with the quote from Oscar Wilde: “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” A quote that I found to be rooted in both hope and despair. Two feelings that this movie left me ruminating in, even hours after.
The Invite is an “all in one night and location” type of movies that brings two wildly different couples together for a dinner party. Angela (Olivia Wilde), a housewife and lapsed artist, has optimistically invited their upstairs neighbors over for dinner much to her husband Joe’s (Seth Rogan) chagrin. Joe, a failed musician who now teaches music, is grumpy about everything. He is unhappy with his life, and he wears that on his sleeve, much to Angela’s own chagrin. Meanwhile, Angela also has that all too familiar sadness about her that she masks with optimism and the need to stay busy. In this case renovating their apartment. As the movie progresses we learn more about both of them and how they found their connection with each other through art but eventually lost that passion thanks to the realities of life. Leaving their dreams to fall away and them to drift through life, shells of who they once were as ever an ever-growing resentment towards the other festered.
Their neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pia (Penélope Cruz) are almost the direct opposite. They are both free spirits who almost float into the apartment and through life with positive energy. They are exactly the kind of partners most couples in Joe and Angela’s position would aspire to be. In fact, you can see right off the bat that they do and how both react to their guests very differently. While Angela clearly is desperate to make a good impression and become friends, Joe presents as jealous and resentful. The topic of Hawk’s elevator small talk, as well as he and Pi
a’s extremely loud and joyous 2-4 am love making is brought up early as a point of contention and persists throughout the film. Despite their differences and the initial awkward interactions as the evening begins, they eventually find some commonalities that lead to some extremely personal conversations.
The performances throughout the film are excellent. The four actors each carry the movie in their own way and are all given moments to shine. The chemistry between them works splendidly whether that be antagonistic, awkward, or even sexual. Rogan’s portrayal of a man so annoyed and threatened by a seemingly cooler man lends to both comedy and tension as the movie progresses. His judgmental brutal honesty and lack of filter is an interesting counter to Norton’s unjudgmental nature combined with his own lack of filter and honesty. Nothing bothers Hawk despite some pretty hurtful things to hear from a quasi-stranger. I found Wilde’s character so relatable in her anxiety and awe of Pia and Hawk. There is nothing more awkward than hosting or being hosted by potential couple friends. It’s almost like a first date. You want to make a good impression, you are nervous they won’t like you; you don’t want to come on too strongly, but you also don’t want to be too casual that they think you don’t like them either. All of these emotions are right there on Wilde’s face throughout the movie, and I can’t think of another performance of hers that felt so neurotic, raw, and on the surface. Couple that with her also directing the movie and I am so blown away by the effort and display of talent both in front of and behind the camera. Cruz rounds out the cast perfectly as that older, more experienced, cool and sexy counterpart who anyone would want to have as a friend. She has a very pivotal role by the end to provide some much-needed therapeutic messaging, but she builds to that from the very beginning earning the ability to go from cool to sage without the audience batting an eye.
Now, I was told that this movie is best when you go into it knowing as little as possible, so that is what I did. However, if you have seen a trailer or read a synopsis, I think it is pretty obvious where the plot of this movie eventually finds itself. The nature of the evening events turns to that topic of conversation in which married couples so often find their own relationships lacking: Sex. Sex is a mixed bag when it comes to people’s understanding of, relationship with, or simply personal preference. Sex, love, and marriage are often thrown together into a pot and get mixed up, confused, and could leave couples in a place of contention (especially in the case of Joe and Angela). Personally, I blame traditional values and conservative upbringings which teach us very early on that sex is something so taboo and surrounded by rules that it can be hard to have a healthy relationship or mindset around the act itself. Hawk and Pia have a much more progressive take on the subject which I feel may drift too far to the extreme on the other end of the spectrum. As a relapsed catholic, even typing these past few sentences has made me profoundly uncomfortable. Yet as a 41-year-old married man I couldn’t help but see a past version of myself in both Joe and Angela. I just thank God that it didn’t take the events of this movie to help me and my wife break from those traditional platitudes that were harming our own relationship. I won’t go into more detail about the multiple uses of the word “invitation,” but I will say that The Invite has some pretty interesting moments of marital peril and self-reflection that I found to be both cathartic and true to life. However, where this journey takes you will depend on your own ability to relate to these characters.
The Invite is very funny through both awkward scenarios as well as situational quips, and comments. It never crosses that line into “The Office” awkward but it expertly tap dances around that line. If you are looking for an old school style dramady that has a modern sensibility, some excellent camera work, and a perfect use of music, I can’t recommend this movie enough. See it with a crowd because the laughter will be infectious and you should have a good time.
As for the Oscar Wilde quote that opens the movie, I don’t think this script believes in that quote, not completely. I think it proves that relationships and marriage change as they age and develop. As Pia says at one point, often we are left with a choice: to end the relationship in it’s current state and start anew, or to end the relationship completely and begin a new phase of life. Both outcomes require love to achieve despite the contradiction. I feel hopeful that The Invite does not take a completely pessimistic route when exploring Oscar Wilde’s observation yet knowing that the pessimistic version of his view is always on the table. What Oliva Wilde has taken from his quote and brought forth to the big screen is something deeper to consider.
Rating: High Side of Liked It
The Invite is currently playing in theaters.
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