Souffl茅 is for dinner but much more is on the table in Olivia Wilde鈥檚 deliciously entertaining chamber comedy, about a couple whose marriage is on the rocks who invite their upstairs neighbors over for an impromptu get-together.
Such a gathering is, of course, a standby setup of stage and screen, alike. Faster than I can say 鈥淲ho鈥檚 Afraid of Virginia Woolf?鈥� you can probably predict some of where 鈥淭he Invite鈥� is going: a spread of quips, come-ons and marital catharsis all served on a tidy, single-setting plate.
But even if you can sometimes feel the gears turning in 鈥淭he Invite,鈥� it’s cunningly syncopated and cleverly acted enough to make it a welcome, modern twist on the drawing-room comedy of manners. Unlike the dinner served in the film though, it鈥檚 baked to near-perfection.
This is Wilde鈥檚 third film as a director, and because of her apparent grasp of the material, it鈥檚 her best. She started promisingly with the high school comedy But her ambitious follow-up, 鈥淒on鈥檛 Worry Darling,鈥� was a clunky, overcooked disappointment. Comedy may be more in her wheelhouse. Besides, it鈥檚 Wilde鈥檚 brilliantly comic performance that sets 鈥淭he Invite鈥� apart.
In the movie鈥檚 opening moments, Joe (Seth Rogen) and his wife, Angela (Wilde), make very different ways home to their San Francisco apartment. Joe, an associate professor at a so-so music conservatory, schleps up the city鈥檚 hills on a foldable bike while Angela stylishly picks flowers and food from the market.
When Joe collapses in their apartment, they are almost immediately at each other鈥檚 throats. Not helping is that Joe is shocked to learn their 12-year-old daughter is at a sleepover and the neighbors are coming for dinner. Angela, clearly desperate to impress them, has not only prepared a meal but bought a new outfit and living-room rug. The woman, she says with reverence, 鈥渉as, like, presence.鈥�
Joe鈥檚 only interest in seeing their neighbors 鈥� largely unknown to them 鈥� is to register a noise complaint. Their loud sex at early-morning hours has driven Joe mad. Angela, though, refuses to let him say anything that would interrupt what she deems sound like 鈥渟pectacular orgasms.鈥�
The two of them are shouting at each other just as the bell rings, so P铆na ( ) and Hawk ( ) realize right away they鈥檙e walking into a charged atmosphere. Hawk embraces it. 鈥淲e love a contentious environment,鈥� he says.
鈥淭he Invite鈥� does, too, and the combination of almost completely opposite couples make for some bravura exchanges. The script, by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, is based on Spanish director Cesc Gay鈥檚 2020 movie 鈥淭he People Upstairs,鈥� which has already been widely adapted and translated.
The couple from upstairs are intentionally hard to believe. Hawk, if the name wasn鈥檛 enough already, is a firefighter. P铆na is, well, Pen茅lope Cruz, and very glamorously indeed has 鈥減resence.鈥� She鈥檚 a psychotherapist and sexologist, and both she and Hawk speak with in-touch-with-themselves harmony.
But while the couple’s differences make for some fun clashes, the conflict most worth following is in Angela鈥檚 face. She鈥檚 a ball of anxiety, strenuously trying to hide her embarrassment while constantly flashing her yearning for what Hawk and P铆na possess. In a four-hander where each performer excels in their own way, Wilde gives a neurotic tour de force. Just the alacrity with which she dispatches a completely burned souffl茅 into the trash, right as things go off the rails, is a thing of beauty.
So is the rhythmic dialogue of Jones and McCormack鈥檚 script, which at every turn mixes deeply personal topics like perimenopause and sex regularity with subjects like paint color and the music of Sade. 鈥淭he Invite鈥� would probably work better if Wilde trusted the cadence of dialogue a bit more, but the heavy-handed strings of Dev Hynes鈥� score at least serves as a reflection of Angela鈥檚 tense state.
The movie’s title refers not to dinner but an offer made midevening. The noise from upstairs, P铆na and Hawk confess, is from their sex parties. Angela and Joe are immediately curious, and not at all dismissive when P铆na and Hawk ask if they鈥檇 be interested in a foursome.
How far Angela and Joe, and Wilde鈥檚 film, are willing to go is better left unsaid. But suffice to say that while sex is a quite literal subject in 鈥淭he Invite,鈥� it’s also a symbol. Joe and Angela have for years been locked in the kind of stasis that plenty of couples end up in. Nothing says this more than how Joe, who many years ago had a one-hit wonder titled 鈥淥ne Girl,鈥� won’t even touch a piano anymore.
Wilde, who adopted her last name from Oscar Wilde, nods to the Irish writer in the movie’s opening quotation: 鈥淥ne should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.鈥� But 鈥淭he Invite鈥� is far from an anti-monogamy movie. It’s about allowing yourself to change and making yourself available to new experiences 鈥� not necessarily having a foursome.
It’s a surprising highlight of 鈥淭he Invite鈥� that this idea is most eloquently voiced by Norton’s Hawk. His character could so easily be a punchline, but Norton’s unique talent for melding smarmy with sweet turns a surprisingly tender monologue into something also genuinely insightful. 鈥淭he Invite鈥� might appear risqu茅, but when it comes to what it really has to say about relationships, it’s not so wild.
鈥淭he Invite,鈥� an A24 release is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for sexual material, language throughout, and drug use. Running time: 107 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
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