Olivia Wilde is Angela, a worrywart who buys rugs and lamps from flea markets with the need to impress. Angela is married to Joe (Seth Rogen), a former musician for a band that never went anywhere. He teaches music at a small conservatory that he doesn't seem suited for. Joe is miserable, has not had sex with Angela in a year yet they stay together for the one young daughter they have (whom we never see). When Joe arrives one night from work, Angela reminds him they have guests that evening- they are their upstairs neighbors who have loud sex romps every night. Joe is flummoxed by this, unprepared for this couple and is ready to rant on them being noisy to the extreme. The neighbors arrive and they include rug enthusiast and widower Hawk (Edward Norton), a former firefighter (not fireman), and his Spanish girlfriend, Pina (Penelope Cruz). What develops during the course of this evening is surprising with Joe relating his honesty about this couple to their face and with Angela doing her best to deflect her husband from making everything less than merry. The irony is that happy-go-lucky, charming Hawk (his chosen nickname) and flirty Pina appreciate them for their honesty. After Angela does a mini-tour of their San Francisco apartment with Hawk and Pina smokes pot with Joe in his office, there is much talk about sex and orgies and Angela walking naked in the apartment. This intentional display of baring it all was seen by Hawk in his apartment! And there is a tremendously funny scene where Joe has to admit that he knocked on their apartment door during all that noise - ring camera footage proves it all!
The first few minutes left me unsure of what I was in store for. The heightened music score by Devonté Hynes amps up the bickering and arguing between Joe and Angela. Once the movie settles in with the couples meeting each other, "The Invite" is a roller-coaster of laughs, wickedly funny character insights and an unexpected explosion of truth towards the end that I found quite moving. Still, this is not a raw examination of couples in the 2020's by way of Virginia Woolf nor does it open up beyond marital fidelity like "Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice" (the best married couple syndrome comedy-drama I've ever seen) but its heart is closer to Woody Allen's own romantic comedies (there's a dedication to Diane Keaton in the end credits). Olivia Wilde scores another direct hit for having helmed this one behind the camera ("Booksmart" is my favorite film by her) and does an expert job of handling all the nuances and the interior shots so that not one shot of this apartment is ever repeated. She also knows how to handle herself and her disbelieving looks at Joe are priceless. Seth Rogen gives the best performance of his life, sharing his own self-deprecating ways better than anyone else could have. Kudos to Edward Norton playing one of the softer, gentler characters of his career and he's a good match for Penelope Cruz who is always exciting to watch. A movie for couple to treasure.
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