In Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite,” framing is everything. Within the walls of their magnificent San Francisco apartment, Angela (Wilde) and Joe (Seth Rogen) are always at odds, clutching onto fundamentally irreconcilable visions of their life.
Their floundering marriage is encapsulated in the meticulous way Wilde crafts each shot. Angela and Joe are always physically divided, on opposite ends of the screen or separated by an ornately-decorated wall. By contrast, their upstairs neighbors Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) are perpetually cozied up, as if to represent their being an emotionally mature, happy foil to the central couple.
Told in real time over the span of a hellish dinner party, “The Invite” packs a punch with 105 minutes, four characters and one setting. One unassuming evening, Joe returns home to find that Angela has invited their attractive, elusive upstairs neighbors — whose increasingly loud sexcapades have been keeping them and their 12 year old daughter awake at night — over for a supposedly casual dinner. The last-minute meal ends up being anything but relaxed, and instead devolves into a night of airing grievances and romantic misadventure before Pína and Hawk pitch a foursome and the tension comes to a head.
This expertly designed and executed film is A24 at its finest: subtle yet endlessly watchable. Shrewd, sly dialogue clues audiences into a decade’s worth of resentment. In this flawlessly renovated yet disjointed apartment, every compliment is a barb and Chekhov’s gun. The wonderful set, stressful sound production — scored by Blood Orange — and one excellent needle-drop don’t hurt either.
While the script, written by comedic actors Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, is incredibly strong, Wilde is the heart of the film. The movie’s confined scope allows her directorial choices, which involve quick cuts and off-camera dialogue, to truly shine. After Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling” missed the mark, “The Invite” is a return to what made her first film “Booksmart” so strong — sharp wit and social awareness that seeps into every scene.
Wilde is equally strong as a protagonist. Over the course of the film, Angela unravels as she tries desperately to impress her upstairs neighbors and comes to terms with the state of her marriage. Angela is unfulfilled professionally, socially and sexually, and Wilde perfectly represents these emotions with wild, trapped eyes and haunted expressions.
In fact, each member of the romantic quadrangle is perfectly cast. Rogan is at once pathetic, irritating and amusing as a dad in the midst of a mid-life crisis. A has-been musician and now adjunct professor at a local conservatory, he gets more of an explicit backstory than his wife. While the root of Angela’s misery is hard to pin down, her husband clearly feels like a failure and it manifests in sarcasm that verges on nastiness.
The male characters are more fleshed out than their female counterparts, which does hinder viewers’ understanding of the dynamics of each relationship. Penelope Cruz is predictably compelling, but the most we learn about Pína is that she is an emotionally mature and sexually empowered psychotherapist who rescued Hawk (the tragic origins of their relationship come out in an emotional monologue in the second act, excellently delivered by Norton).
In short, the drama is a well-conceived and excellently executed film. Its tonal balancing act is something to be admired — Wilde vacillates between slapstick comedy, subtle sarcasm and moments of genuine emotion that manage to land in a tight, propulsive film.
