The Invite

Don’t Forget the Wine but bring a Homemade-Flan and an Unexpected Proposal.

Relationships are not easy. What’s easy is pretending everything is fine until you become miserable and frustrated.

“The Invite” by Olivia Wilde, a remake of the Spanish film “The People Upstairs,” is a grotesque dark comedy that spends 107 minutes making you sit through non-stop conversations, awkwardness and discomfort… And when I say non-stop, I really mean it.

At times the endless conversations become almost annoying and claustrophobic, but they also make you laugh until you cry, and this perfectly fits the irony of the movie and what it’s trying to portray.

The couples Joe-Angela (Seth Rogen-Olivia Wilde) and Piña-Hawk (Penélope Cruz-Edward Norton) couldn’t be more different. One is dealing with marriage fatigue, routine, work dissatisfaction and a complete lack of communication. The other seems to have a much more bohemian and open-mindedapproach to their relationship.

But underneath the differences, both couples have their own problems. Because talking constantly, or sharing certain experiences, doesn’t necessarily mean communicating.

What really intrigued me is the contrast between looking like the perfect, happy couple to impress other people and pretending everything is fine until it all collapses.

Sometimes we put a lot of effort into maintaining the facade rather than admitting how frustrated and unhappy we really are.

The cast blends together ridiculously well. Their chemistry is what makes all those endless conversations and absurd moments work, even when you feel like screaming at the screen.

The movie was shot in sequential order, like a real play, allowing the actors to continuously improviseand create scenes that weren’t originally in the script, which honestly makes the whole experience feel so real and hilarious.

Watching such an intimate and uncomfortable dinner-party drama at the Locarno Film Festival with 8,000 people was a surreal experience, and knowing that Olivia Wilde was there, watching us and our reactions laughing together from a tiny balcony after presenting the movie, made the whole experience very emotional and special.

At some point I genuinely wanted them all to shut the fuck up. Then I realised I was laughing because I wanted them to shut the fuck up! And by the end my mind could only think: Jesus Christ, all of you need therapy NOW!!!

The unexpected twist in the story also completely changes the dynamics between the characters, and I loved watching how that shift affected the whole atmosphere.

But before the more intense part, there is the dinner set-up intro, which becomes one of the most strange, real and absurd moments of the movie.

I won’t say much more about the ending or the twist because they are much better discovered on your own, but I definitely had a lot to talk about afterwards. And hearing other people’s reactions while leaving the screening made the whole experience even better.

Let’s just say that “The Invite” is a pretty good reminder that you can talk for 107 minutes straight and still not actually communicate.

WATCHED AT:

Locarno Film Festival 79