Oscar Wilde’s quote, “One should always be in love … that is the reason one should never marry,” sets the tone for “The Invite,” playing at the M.V. Film Center beginning August 6. Next, we hear a sweet melody being played on a piano by two laughing people. But if you think that Olivia Wilde’s new feature, which she also stars in, is a romance, think again.
Yes, “The Invite” is about love — but love that is found, lost, crumbling, and stumbling along in a marriage that is on the rocks. Joe (Seth Rogen) grumpily arrives home, having ridden his small, fold-up bike up and down the hills of San Francisco from a job he could care less about at a local music school. In agony from his bad back, he collapses on the floor right inside the door. Joe’s mood worsens when his wife Angela (Wilde) “reminds” him that the neighbors are coming to dinner. He swears that he never knew they were coming, and so, no, he definitely didn’t pick up the wine, adding fuel to a fire we can tell has been burning since before the cameras started to roll.
Angry and disgruntled, Joe adamantly wants Angela, who is a big ball of anxiety, to cancel the dinner. He can’t stand the couple upstairs, particularly the man, who makes far too much small talk in the elevator. But more importantly, Joe points out to Angela that the couple keep them up all night with their wild and very, very loud sex. Angela refuses to back down, wanting to host the couple as a thank-you for putting up with the noise of their recent renovation. Angela’s made an enormous effort to select just the right food and tidy the house.
The bickering escalates, and Angela asks for a “reset,” for Joe to go out so they can start the evening over. Although he does, the two of them are at each other’s throats after just a few kind words.
When the doorbell rings, Hawk (Ed Norton) and Pia (Penélope Cruz) enter, and while Angela is all polite and cheery, the couple let her and Joe know they heard them fighting before they rang the bell.
This not-sweeping-it-under-the-rug truth-telling is just the very first of what will be an evening full of them. Joe doesn’t hide his hostility or cynicism, and is furious when Hawk insists that he really likes Joe’s honesty. Angela is mortified by Joe’s behavior, constantly talking over him, desperately trying to make everything “nice.”
While the two are painfully at odds, Pia and Hawk make an interesting pair. He is a retired firefighter studying the healing hands-on art of Rolfing. Pia, who’s Spanish, is a sexologist and psychologist. Their comfort with each other, as well as the awkward moments between Joe and Pia, make them the cool kids on the block.
Initially, there is an unidentifiable, enigmatic air about Joe and Pia’s relationship. It has an immediately noticeable physicality. Where this comes from, and how it plays out among the quartet, zigzags in different directions over the course of the film. Sex, love, relationships, disappointment, compromise, and communication run throughout the film, keeping you guessing where it will go next.
“The Invite” begins at the M.V. Film Center on August 6. For more information and tickets, visit mvfilmsociety.com.
