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Nothing says a healthy marriage quite like inviting the neighbours over for dinner and accidentally turning the evening into couples therapy that absolutely NOBODY consented to.
Synopsis:
Joe and Angela are a married couple whose relationship has fallen into a rut. When they invite their upstairs neighbours, the free-spirited Piña and Hawk, over for dinner, what begins as an attempt to address the noise coming from their apartment quickly becomes an evening of awkward conversations, uncomfortable confessions, and increasingly personal revelations. As the two couples clash over sex, relationships, and what it means to be happy together, the dinner party becomes an unexpected examination of their own marriages—and whether honesty is always the best policy.
What works:
💌The cast is fantastic! Seth Rogen is perfectly cast as Joe, bringing his trademark comedic timing to a character whose frustrations and insecurities make him both hilarious and painfully relatable. Olivia Wilde is equally compelling as Angela, capturing the quiet dissatisfaction of someone who desperately wants more from her life and relationship.
💌Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are an absolute delight. Cruz brings a wonderfully confident, unapologetic energy to Piña, a therapist, while Norton plays Hawk with an eccentric charm that makes you understand why this couple is simultaneously fascinating and infuriating to their neighbours. The contrast between the two couples is where so much of the comedy comes from.
💌The screenplay by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack is sharp and brilliantly uncomfortable. The dialogue feels natural, the awkward silences are almost as funny as the punchlines, and the conversations manage to be provocative without feeling like they’re trying too hard to shock the audience. It’s the sort of film where you can practically feel yourself wanting to crawl out of your seat during certain exchanges.
💌Olivia Wilde’s direction works beautifully with the confined setting. Fresh off Don’t Worry Darling, she takes a much more intimate approach to directing here, trading psychological thriller tension for the kind of dinner party awkwardness that makes you want to crawl under the table. She makes excellent use of the confined setting, letting the tension build naturally as the conversation gets increasingly uncomfortable. Keeping most of the story within one apartment could easily have become monotonous, but the staging and performances keep the dinner party feeling lively. As the evening progresses, the apartment becomes less of a cosy gathering space and more of a pressure cooker.
💌I appreciated that the film has more to say than simply making fun of awkward couples. Beneath the sexual humour and passive-aggressive remarks, there’s a thoughtful exploration of intimacy, resentment, and the uncomfortable work involved in maintaining a long-term relationship.
What doesn’t work:
🫣The tonal shift towards the end is a little jarring. The film spends so much time building its identity around cringe comedy that its more serious emotional moments don’t always blend seamlessly with the humour.
🫣Some conversations feel slightly stagey, as though the characters are delivering arguments for the audience’s benefit rather than speaking naturally. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it occasionally reminds you that you’re watching a very carefully constructed dinner-party farce.
🫣While the film raises some interesting questions about relationships, it doesn’t necessarily offer satisfying answers to all of them. I would have liked a little more time to sit with some of the emotional revelations rather than moving quite so quickly towards the conclusion.
Final thoughts:
The Invite is funny, awkward, provocative, and surprisingly thoughtful. It’s carried by four excellent performances and a screenplay that understands just how much damage can be done over a perfectly ordinary dinner. It might get a little uneven when it swaps comedy for emotional drama, but I had a thoroughly good time watching these four people make increasingly questionable decisions in the name of honesty.
Consider this your reminder that sometimes it’s better to just buy earplugs than get to know your neighbours 😂
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