“The Invite” is a Voyeur’s Dream
How well do you know your neighbors? Would you invite them over for dinner? A game night? A block party? An intimate evening? What does an invitation to any one of those events signify to your neighbor? Based on the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs, by Cesc Gay, Olivia Wilde’s The Invite lives in the uncomfortable world of the relationships between nearby neighbors. How close is too close? What do you really know about the people who live a ceiling’s distance away? What secrets do you unknowingly keep from your partner?
Angela (Wilde) has invited the upstairs neighbors over for dinner, much to the chagrin of her husband Joe (Seth Rogen). To call their relationship rocky would be generous. There was once love between them, that much is still evident, but things have gotten icy. Joe returns from work and all he wants to do is relax. When he sees the incredible charcuterie spread on the table, he questions what Angela has planned. The upstairs neighbors, Pína (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), will be coming over in about fifteen minutes. Angela sees this as a chance to make new friends, while Joe wants to confront them about the loud sex they have at 3:00 a.m. every day. Over the course of the evening, inhibitions are shed, secrets are revealed, and neither couple will ever be the same.
Courtesy of A24
The People Upstairs was a play before Gay adapted his own work into a movie. Wilde’s adaptation maintains the claustrophobia of the single-setting story, but she has put her own spin on the tale. The apartment is a glorious place. If we have to spend an entire film in one location, Joe and Angela’s apartment is a great one. Newly renovated, it’s a source of anxiety for Joe. This is where he grew up, his parents’ apartment. The fact that he has a beautiful home he didn’t earn is one of the many reasons he feels he’s failed in life. Joe was part of a band that could be considered a one-hit wonder and, in the eighteen years since he briefly tasted fame, he’s moped about what could have been. This beautiful home is a prison to him. A reminder that his life isn’t what he wanted it to be.
A24 fans are drawing connections between The Invite and The Drama, from earlier in the year. The two are both small-cast pictures that are intimate in nature. The Drama has a few more cast members, but the central story remains between Robert Pattinson’s Charlie and Zendaya’s Emma. Both feature a twist of a secret that both tightens the noose around the characters and expands the possibility for drama. The stark difference between the two is that The Drama is afraid to get into the nitty gritty of the relationship strife it creates. It finds humor and tension in refusing to have its couple delve into the problems of their relationship. On the contrary, The Invite excavates everything wrong with the couples at the heart of the story. There is nowhere to hide in The Invite. All of the ugliness, desperation, and desire are cut open and on display in the living room of Joe and Angela, and The Invite is all the better for it.
Courtesy of A24
Wilde’s stock as a director suffered after Don’t Worry Darling. With all the swirling behind-the-scenes drama that’s still a source of fascination for pop culture fans, it’s hard to tell where Don’t Worry Darling went wrong. What’s clear, though, is that Wilde’s first directorial outing with Booksmart was not a fluke. She understands every inch of the single setting of The Invite, using doorframes, windows, and mirrors to divide and connect her characters. Her performance is entrancing as well. Her face gives away Angela’s every emotion, and those sure do run through the gamut over the course of the evening.
The Invite is part of a delectable genre of dinner parties gone wrong. What a voyeuristic thrill it is to be embedded in such rich drama that is not your own. The film opens with a quote from Oscar Wilde. “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” The Invite probes the 21st-century idea of marriage, love, sex, and everything in between.
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