The Invite No Spoiler Review: Olivia Wilde's Best Since Booksmart, Powered by a Career Performance From Seth Rogen

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This film is small, earnest, and funny, anchored by one of Seth Rogen’s best performances yet.

Olivia Wilde directs and stars in The Invite, and there’s a fun backstory behind how it came together. She guest-starred in an episode of Seth Rogen’s The Studio, playing herself as an eccentric director, and that’s funnily enough how the two reconnected. That guesting led directly to this movie, and some of that show’s level of amazing clearly rubbed off on the project. The film started as a stage play in Spain. It’s a small, contained movie, mostly shot in an apartment, with notable cinematography, especially in how it plays with the architecture of the space, the lights, and the windows. Despite the small scale, it did well in cinemas, pulling in nearly $43 million worldwide off a limited release, a strong number for a mostly one-location movie.

It pulls you in with the comedy, the unusual premise, and then lands a solid hook: you won’t see it coming. Seth Rogen really is a great actor. All great performances, actually. Seth just stands out because you could really feel for the characters, and it’s just so unbecoming for this really funny guy to make you feel things, but he does so successfully. You feel their complexity, their arcs, history, and brokenness.

Really strong ensemble with great chemistry. This is a phone-down by choice kind of movie once it gets going. It captures your attention, which is a big feat for a lot of dialogue and one setting. My wife also says Penélope Cruz’s monologue sounds exactly like an Esther Perel monologue.

The premise also reminds me of Splitsville with Dakota Johnson, but this is better by a bit. Just by a little. If you liked this or it resonates with you at your core, catch Splitsville as well. Also check out The One I Love, which is similar but has a much weirder, fantastic premise. But anyway, this is the best of those three films.

And maybe one last warning: this is not a rom-com. It’s a comedy-drama in the best way. But I’ve seen some posts online warning that if your relationship has some trauma, maybe work on it before watching this.

Overall, earnest and honest, and it gets you with the final act. You will feel feels. But just the right amount. For me, this is the best thing that Olivia Wilde has done in a while. We just want to forget Don’t Worry Darling.

My score: ★★★★☆. Her score: ★★★★☆.

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