The Invite
Released 2026. Director: Olivia Wilde
BEFORE WE GET INTO THE MOVIE, A WORD about the title. You can call me a nitpicker, old-fashioned or out of touch but I cringe inside whenever someone uses the word “invite” when they mean "invitation". I know it's easier, breezier and modern but it isn't right. Why condemn a beautiful word to death by hasty dismemberment?
Objection stated, let's move on. This movie is an invitation to a front-row seat to witness a couples therapy. Inviting the neighbours over shouldn't be a stressful time, unless you're desperate to impress, have a bone to pick, or have a delicate proposal that might backfire. The Invite is about all that, as well as jealousy, insecurity and its opposite, self-superiority. Who cares about the food?
Angela and Joe have invited their new neighbours from the apartment upstairs over for dinner and drinks. This is the first time the two couples will properly introduce themselves though they've crossed paths in the elevator since Hawk and Pina moved in a month ago.
Angela has laid out a charcuterie; there's even a souffle in the oven. She's freshened the apartment with a new rug and bought a new dress for herself. First impression counts, right? Joe, on the other hand, missed her text to buy wine and he's forgotten about the arrangement. Well, technically he didn't forget because his wife has simply gone ahead with the plan knowing he'll resist if given half a chance.
They fret, they bicker, they disagree, they blame each other. In other words, just a regular evening. Angela wants the get-together to be perfect and is horrified when Joe says he wants to gripe to the new neighbours about the loud noise when they have sex. He wants to know who the “growler” is.
The mutual sizing-up begins in earnest when Hawk and Pina arrive, both of them casually polished, affable if a tad forward. Angela is effusive while Joe is barely warmed up to be sociable. Let the verbal intercourse begin.
A movie made up of people talking lives or dies on its dialogue and the four-way back-and-forth written by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones keeps up with the momentum admirably without slipping for even a minute. It doesn't try hard to be witty though it's smart and engaging. It also doesn't aim for dramatic turns though it has moments of genuine sentiments. I haven't seen The People Upstairs, the Spanish movie on which The Invite is based, so I'm not in a position to compare. On its own, The Invite stands up to scrutiny and is a fine drama for mature audiences who enjoy a dissection into the cynical aspects of marital dynamics. It's also very funny at times.
The turning point in the plot comes when Hawk and Pina reveal they host sex parties (the “growler” isn't either of them) and make a generous offer to include Joe and Angela in future orgies. But hey, why wait when they could get started right now if everyone's up for it?
It's not a spoiler to say the adult games don't get far because this is not a smutty movie. Their decisions bring to the surface what's been suppressed for too long. As hanky-panky devolves into unplanned marital counselling, The Invite is hilarious, sad and thoughtful all at once. Are the cracks and damage in Joe and Angela's marriage beyond repair? Declares Pina the psychotherapist, “I think this relationship is over.”
It seems facile to make such a pronouncement on someone else's marriage after only one encounter. On the other hand, you feel that you recognise Joe and Angela because their situation doesn't feel uncommon. The intelligent writing and character-revealing disclosures disguised as comic exchanges contain shades of truth universal in “normal” marriages because we are all flawed humans, happy or dissatisfied, loving or resentful, each of us figuring our own way in our relationship.
Olivia Wilde funnels the sweet and the sour notes into a clear vision. Her directing is clean and focused, letting the twin pillars of writing and acting do the heavy lifting. Wilde, who also stars at Angela, with Seth Rogen as Joe, Edward Norton as Hawk and Penelope Cruz as Pina are a dream team. The sizzle of attraction and antagonism is effortless and each character has personal space to tell his and her story.
The casting of Seth Rogen is particularly effective. Joe is stuck in a job he loathes, his unrealised dream as a musician still weighs on him and he feels like a failure. Rogen reflects an everyman attribute with a calculated, deliberate loser vibe to make Joe more identifiable among male audiences, not least when he feels his masculinity threatened by a man named Hawk. The idea of a sexually-active super-stud firefighter makes Joe impotent. For Pina to want to have sex with him goes beyond the physical.
In much the same way, Angela is a harried, repressed wife and mother who has lost her mojo as an artist. Her husband doesn't understand where she's at but she probably has no idea herself. In walks a man who makes her feel appreciated and desirable despite her insecurity. You can see how the universe is aligning for Joe and Angela to loosen their grip on inhibitions.
Hawk rewrites Joe's perception of him when he explains how he finds a new life direction after his wife's death. Pina makes her life choices and decisions persuasive with her knowledge of human behaviour. Some couples experience paradigm shifts along the way, others stay the course. No one is right or wrong because each couple will figure out what works for them.
Not exactly an insightful conclusion but the movie makes you savour its after-taste whether you find it sweet, sour or bitter. It simply asks what couples become in a long-term relationship, evaluating their hopes and dreams versus reality. Spare an evening and reply yes to this invitation.
Lovely review. Enjoyed this. 'Seriously funny'!
Excellent review, Patrick. I also agree with your dislike towards "invite" instead of "invitation". Ugh.