Olivia Wilde’s 'The Invitation' Offers Sharp Satire but Falls Short of Brilliance

Olivia Wilde’s third directorial film, "The Invitation," revisits a familiar premise: a weary married couple invites a passionate, adventurous young couple to their home, leading to tension and revelations. This American remake of the 2022 Spanish film "The Neighbors Upstairs," originally written and directed by Cesc Gay, stars Wilde and Seth Rogen as the hosts, with Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz as the guests. The guests propose an orgy, adding to the charged atmosphere. While Wilde’s direction is impressive and the film is mostly entertaining, it dwells in a genre often criticized for its theatrical, bourgeois clichés about couples’ secrets and conflicts, a genre rarely transcended except by works like Edward Albee’s "Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and its film adaptation by Mike Nichols.

Wilde’s version is a sharp, sarcastic satire on relationships, between neighbors, spouses, men, and women. The film uses film photography to make the setting a character itself and benefits from the involvement of multiple actor-writers, including Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, which brings unexpected emotional twists and a meta-commentary on performance in marriage. The drama unfolds as the couple prepares in the bedroom before entering the living room, the main stage for their confrontations, emphasizing that marriage is a performance where behavior shifts between partners and outsiders.

Despite these strengths, "The Invitation" quickly devolves into sitcom-like scenarios and couples therapy clichés, with its humor and sharpness fading, leaving a bitter aftertaste. Distributed by the boutique company A24, targeting a young, trendy audience skeptical of romantic comedies, the film aims to deliver a biting critique of modern relationships as toxic battlegrounds. However, like the earlier 2024 film "Drama," also from A24, the hype and promise exceed the actual impact and execution of the film.