Film review: Olivia Wilde's The Invite has everything going for it

We independently select everything we recommend. Buying through us may earn us a commission, which supports our work.

I don’t know where to begin. The Invite, directed by and starring Olivia Wilde, features an incredible quartet of performers at the top of their game, a wicked score that crashes in like a fifth Beatle, whip-smart writing, whip-fast editing and the funniest line about tea-serving since the days of the Ealing comedies.

Oh, and it has a period at the end of the title, putting it in some august company. Clerks. Adaptation. Emma. Good Night, and Good Luck.

The premise is simple, period. Joe (Seth Rogen) arrives home from his job as a conservatory music teacher to be told by his wife, Angela (Wilde), that they are having company. The neighbours are coming over. What could go wrong?

Joe and Angela have been renovating their apartment, and she wants to apologize for the noise. Joe isn’t thrilled at this, but would like to talk to the neighbours about the noise they’ve been making in the bedroom, which permeates the building like a more enthusiastic and pleasurable home makeover.

The neighbours, Hawk and Pina (Edward Norton, Penélope Cruz), arrive. Everyone is on their best behaviour, although Angela’s best is simperingly eager to please, while Joe’s would put Larry David to shame.

Hawk and Pina, seen through the eyes of Joe and Angela, are more of a mystery. It is soon revealed that the boisterous noise from their bedroom is the result of inviting others into their sexual circle, a revelation that Angela greets with excitement and Joe with a mix of lust and fear, even as both try to hide their true feelings behind polite, neutral nods.

It’s great fun from this point to both wonder where it’s going to go, and to watch Joe and Angela wonder where it’s going to go.

The screenplay — written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, but based on the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs — refuses to move forward in a straight line, and instead jogs and bobs along with its confused and horny protagonists.

If I had to pick a single line that nails the movie’s vibe, it would be when Pina (frequent collaborator Pedro Almodovar has said Cruz has “one of the most spectacular cleavages in world cinema”) asks Joe if he feels worthy of staring at that part of her in the building’s elevator.

Watch as Joe tries to process that question and its many layered assumptions and potential traps, never quite managing a coherent reply.

Second place, not even a line of dialogue but the moment where Pina bestows a deep kiss upon Angela lips, followed by a silent “boop” on the nose.

And speaking of non-verbal cues, the film features a fantastic score from British musician Dev Hynes, with double-bass and other stringed instruments that sometimes sound like they are trying to comment on the action and talk over the actors. He also weaves in some of Bizet’s Carmen.