“The Invite” Weirdly Funny and Offers Continuous Laughs

This new film, “The Invite,” is directed by Olivia Wilde, and it stars Wilde herself, Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton. That’s it-that’s the whole cast. This movie was almost a play more than a movie, with four actors and one set.

This movie is about a dinner party gone really off the rails. It starts off slow, but it is hilarious! I laughed the whole time. Joe and Angela are middle-aged, living in San Francisco and raising a daughter. The kid is gone for the night, and they invite the upstairs couple over for dinner.

Joe and Angela are one of those couples-we’ve all seen them. All they do is fight. And they are vicious. They don’t know how to be nice to each other anymore, even in public. You wonder why they stay together. So this new couple comes over, and things start off nervous and awkward. Then they build into something very different. It also becomes very honest.

This type of dinner party makes me think of older TV shows and movies. I don’t really think of dinner parties as a Gen X thing. I think of the horrible dinner parties on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or I Love Lucy. Dinner parties are more my parents’ and grandparents’ generation. You don’t see that in more modern sitcoms too often.

At this dinner party they’re having wine, the table is basically one big charcuterie board, the neighbors bring a flan, and they talk about rugs, home décor, their respective interests, and their professions. Then it is revealed that the upstairs couple host sex parties. The one moment that I could totally identify with is after the upstairs couple says they have these sex parties. Joe and Angela are suddenly really eager to listen and ask dumb questions. That would totally be me!

The next step becomes obvious. There is a discussion and a decision to have their own sex party together. I could almost guess that it wouldn’t really work because this old married couple that has been fighting for a long time, while they might indulge in a fantasy involving somebody else, are really only comfortable with each other. So I could kind of see how that would go. They were too nervous with the other partners. But still, watching it was so funny.

There are several themes going on in this movie, such as trying to form friendships when you’re older and trying to be social. There’s also a thread about how long you stay with somebody who does nothing but cause you pain, even though this is the person who’s supposed to love you. There’s a desire to still be seen, relevant, or desirable. When you get to a certain age, a lot of us want to still feel that way, and we don’t. There is also a theme about lost chances, being stuck where you are, and poor choices in life.

At one point Joe makes a comment about why can’t you just let me be miserable, and I immediately thought of my parents. It’s kind of their attitude.

I was slightly obsessed with the charcuterie table. Throughout this dinner party, hardly anybody touches the food. This would not be me at a dinner party-I would absolutely eat the charcuterie. Because I’m single, because I don’t drink, and because I can’t pretend to be interested in inane chatter about rugs, I am not often invited to dinner parties by my neighbors or friends. This is in no way a complaint, especially if the party is like this one. I don’t care about the wine, the rugs, smoking weed, or anything else they really talk about. I just wanted to eat at the charcuterie table. And I would also like to ask awkward questions about sex parties. That I would give my full attention to.

While sex is a big topic of conversation, there is no actual sex in the movie. This is not a complaint, just an observation in case some of you are worried about seeing too much of Seth Rogen.

Each of the actors gets a chance to shine. They bring a lot of themselves-and what we already know about them-to their respective performances. They all do an excellent job.

This movie is hilarious. I highly recommend it, and give it 5 out of 5 stars.