Olivia Wilde's Relationship Comedy is a Return to Form

PLOT: A bickering married couple (Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde) invite their new neighbours (Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz) over for a low-key dinner, only for it to devolve into a night of revelations that may end their fragile union for good.

REVIEW: Olivia Wilde makes her return to directing with The Invite, the first film she’s made since her wildly ambitious Don’t Worry Darling in 2022. That movie was marred by a rather ludicrous press build-up that focused far more on what may or may not have happened behind the scenes than on anything we actually saw on screen, despite the film turning a decent profit. Yet it was spun as a failure. Wilde, however, returns in fine form here with a movie that has much more in common with her earlier indie hit Booksmart, delivering a frequently hilarious depiction of modern marriage and changing norms, both sexual and otherwise.

Many have compared Seth Rogen to Albert Brooks, and that’s never been more apt than it is here, with him playing Joe, a sad-sack, middle-aged man blind to his relatively privileged position in life. He lives in a beautiful, sprawling (and inherited) San Francisco apartment with his wife, Angela (Olivia Wilde). Yet he hasn’t gotten over the fact that he was once in an indie rock band that “almost” made it, and he resents his (pretty cool) job teaching at a music college. However, Angela isn’t much better, burning through all their money decorating the apartment with fancy rugs and paintings they don’t need, while having utterly given up on finding meaningful employment of her own. This leaves her pessimistic about life once their twelve-year-old daughter is grown. Basically, she and Joe take out all their frustrations on each other and seem never to stop bickering.

In less capable hands, Joe and Angela would be a nightmare. Still, Wilde, working from a script by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (Celeste and Jesse Forever), sees the humanity in both. Joe is a wonderful father, and like Brooks before him, Rogen makes him relatable, especially in his awareness that his privileged life isn’t the result of anything he’s accomplished himself, but rather what was handed to him. Likewise, Angela could have been a shrewish nightmare. Still, Wilde’s comic timing is terrific, and she allows us to see the humanity in the character (she’s also great in I Want Your Sex – another Sundance movie).

The Invite is fairly bold in that it’s shot almost entirely in one location—Joe and Angela’s massive apartment—and features only four characters. The other two are Edward Norton’s Hawk and Penelope Cruz’s Pina. About a decade older than Joe and Angela, they seem to have their lives figured out, and sexually, they are voracious, with their apartment-shaking orgasms becoming a bone of contention for the other couple. Once they arrive, they immediately start oversharing and asking questions not meant for polite company, and both are a hoot. Norton is hilarious as Hawk, whose phony-sounding name drives Joe crazy, as does how allowing he is, having been a former firefighter who retired early to chase his passions. Pina, meanwhile, is a sex therapist who can’t help but slip into professional mode. Both actors—better known for serious work—seem to be having a blast exploring their lighter side.

While set in one location, Wilde and her DP Adam Newport-Berra (who also shoots Rogen’s The Studio) keep the movie visually interesting. They also split up the couples at times to explore the different kinds of chemistry between Rogen and Cruz, and Wilde and Norton. The film makes a practical point about how relationships evolve, and how taking your partner for granted is poison for any marriage. Anyone who’s been in a long-term relationship and watched it slowly unravel will no doubt relate.

That said, The Invite is also genuinely hilarious, especially once the topic of sexuality is broached. Wilde gets a lot of comic mileage out of Joe and Angela’s curiosity and Hawk and Pina’s complete lack of filter. She keeps the laughs coming at a brisk pace, with the 107-minute running time flying by. Yet it’s not all bawdy humor—there’s real emotional catharsis here too. Given the standing ovation I witnessed after the screening, the film seems bound to walk away from the festival with a strong distribution deal, meaning a major release should be forthcoming. Hopefully, it plays in theaters, as Wilde is a vocal advocate of the theatrical experience and went to the trouble of shooting the film on 35mm. It deserves to be seen on the big screen.