The Invite – Film Review
by Frank L

Director – Olivia Wilde
Writers – Cesc Gay, Will McCormack, Rashida Jones
Stars – Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, Edward Norton

In the opening sequence, Olivia Wilde uses one of Oscar Wilde’s epigrams: “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry”. She is not apparently related to Oscar, but it is spot on in setting the tone of what is to follow.

It opens with Joe (Seth Rogen), who is listening dutifully in an empty auditorium to a group of his students playing an orchestral piece. When they complete the piece, he says a few words to them and leaves. He cycles home determinedly to his comfortable San Franciscan apartment over some of its many hills. His mood, which is never good, is not improved on entering to discover his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde) is busily employed in making everything perfect as the new neighbouring couple, who live in the apartment above, are coming to dinner.

Angela says she had told him about the dinner, but he says she had not. The neighbouring couple comprise of Pina (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton). Joe is negative about them before they even arrive because of the noise they make when they are making love. Just before they arrive, Joe and Angela have “ a domestic”  which Pina and Hawk can hear. It seems clear Joe and Angela are not “in love”. Pina and Hawk are not married, but they move easily around each other, and they appear sure of each other.  Pina is a sexologist, and Hawk was a firefighter. At the table, the conversation moves gradually into areas which have their own inherent incendiary quality and are far from what is within Joe and Angela’s compass.

What makes the film so entertaining is the first-rate script and the quality of the acting. Wilde is a splendid amalgam of insecurity and desire to impress as a hostess; Rogen is a curmudgeon of the first order whose life has passed him by. The relationship of their characters, Joe and Angela, has long passed its sell-by date. Norton is completely comfortable in his skin, living with a woman he loves and who shares his sexual fantasies. Cruz is masterful as a sexologist and is quite happy to say what she thinks, even if it is outside the boundaries of Joe and Angela’s worn-to-a-thread marriage. Hawk and Pina have a future, while Joe and Angela do not.

Inevitably, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” comes to mind, but this film is not brutal in the way that Edward Albee’s masterpiece is. However, this too is a fine film. There are moments of high farce and of high embarrassment, and one is often surprised at what comes next. It has many delights. It is a joyous film, and that is a rare commodity nowadays.