Screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, have been on my radar since the Sundance premiere of sentimental favorite "Celeste and Jessie Forever" in 2012.
Olivia Wilde directed and starred in this high-energy comedy drama involving two couples, living in the same apartment building, who have gathered for their first official meet and greet. Olivia and her husband played by Seth Rogan are on the edge with their relationship, exacerbated by her neurotic behavior and his depression.
The couple from upstairs, don't appear to have those same issues as Penelope Cruz is a confident psycho-sexual therapist and her husband played by Edward Norton is a suave, caring and compassionate partner. In fact, their noisy, animalistic sexual gymnastics is definitely something Seth wants to complain about.
The evening goes from awkward to cozy to strangely sexual before disaster and probable divorce... but then... the ending leaves us feeling like there is light at the end of the tunnel.
All of the actors commended the script as being well-written but thanks to the flexibility and talent of the actors, a lot was also ad-libbed. The conversations and arguments were clever, carefully choreographed and often came at you like a firehose. The skill of the actors, especially Wilde who also directed should be highly praised.
In fact, at the Q & A Norton couldn't say enough about Wilde's talent of both directing and acting and doing it so seamlessly.
The audience laughed out loud many times. It was a fun film and the standing ovation proved the audience loved it too.
On the KPCW sun rating system, "The Invite” receives five out of five suns.
