As a married person, The Invite is a tough watch, and I mean that in the best way possible. It wants us to consider if love can survive marriage, or if it’s eventually snuffed out by the disappointments of life. The film is the English language adaptation of the Spanish film The People Upstairs. We’re invited into the married lives of Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde), and it’s not a pretty sight. The moment they see each other after a long day apart, the first thing they do is bicker. Joe’s angry about his back, his foldable bike, his lackluster job, and the fact that his wife invited their neighbours over when he just wanted a quiet night in. Angela’s distracted getting the house ready for their cool, attractive neighbours Piña (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), so she’s brushing away all his complaints and checking on her souffle.
As things escalate into a full-blown row between the pair, we already have some insight into the decaying state of the relationship. The entire film being confined to the walls of their apartment adds to the suffocation we feel as the camera expertly guides us through the space. In contrast, Piña and Hawk are the couple who’s still hot for each other – mainly because they’ve only been together one year – and they’re unbelievably honest about everything, which is equal doses annoying and refreshing.
Wilde’s third film is arranged very much like a stage play. Everything’s tightly choreographed and blocked to perfection, and it’s probably one of the few films to be shot chronologically, which helps the pacing and momentum. The screenplay by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones is incredible – plenty of humour and wit – with fully realised characters. It kind of reminded me a little of Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, because there’s quite a bit of laughter but there’s also discomfort as we witness the breaking of a relationship in real time.
All four actors bring their A game: Rogen is fantastic as the angry man who’s lost his spark and confidence, Cruz’s Piña is so self-assured and gorgeous (I actually gasped at how hot she was throughout the movie) but also vulnerable, and Norton reminds us that he’s an actor that can aptly handle both comedy and drama (Keeping the Faith girlies know what I’m talking about). The clear standout is Wilde. She’s always been a good actress, but I guess as the director she’s even more attuned to the material and nuances of the character. Her facial expressions are amazing and conveys so much about Angela’s interior. When she’s sadly reminiscing about the good old times, just from her voice alone we can feel the giddy joy Angela felt at the start of the relationship, only for things to culminate in such aching disappointment. What happened to the people we heard at the start of the movie, what happened to the laughter and desire, shouldn’t time build and not disintegrate?
There’s different shades of chemistry between the four actors. Angela and Hawk vibe over rugs and bathroom tiles, Joe and Piña sexy dance to Sade, Angela fangirls over Piña’s hotness and her mind-blowing orgasms, while Joe picks apart everything Hawk says because of his envy. Hawk’s got the hot girlfriend, the carefree vibes, the pretentious name that’s clearly not his name, and Joe feels like a big failure. Joe’s drowning so much in his own unhappiness that he becomes this point of oblivion that destroys his relationship. There’s no attempt to connect with Angela or build intimacy, and he feels that marriage means he can stop trying to woo her, when the reality is that the wooing must never stop. Both Piña and Hawk’s previous failed relationships are cautionary tales, where expectations were not met or judgements meted out without any desire to understand.
The Invite ends on an ambiguous note, with no resolution on what happens to Joe and Angela’s marriage. It depends on how you want to read things – is it too broken to fix, or can they still rebuild? But I think the real question is what this film spotlights about our own relationships. Marriage is hard, but it’s also easy when we remember who we’re living for.
REVIEW SCORE: 4.5/5
