The Invite... Turn It Down

July 2026

 

Remember Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

 

Where you weren’t sure whether you were watching a movie...

Or the volcanic relationship of the actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor...

Who couldn’t stay married.... or away from each other...

 

Well, The Invite.....

Is a lot like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf...

 

But only in that it’s another of those Middle Age Marital Ennui Movies...

But with less alcohol.. and more weed...

 

Where the husband is a failure...

The wife resentful...

And both feel bitter...and trapped...

 

So they tell lies to themselves...

And blame each other...

 

Until another couple shows up...

And forces them to face the truth...

About themselves and their marriage...

 

Now this plot has been round the block... a lot...

 

But there are elements that would identify this particular film as a product of 2026:

 

The couple can’t afford to buy anything, so they live in an apartment owned by a parent...

There is a lot of 21st century therapy speak...

 

So one character sounds like she might have been Rory’s therapist in Baby Girl...

Because she’s all about that kind of You Go Girl sexual awakening...

That is feminism’s favorite flavor right now...

 

Because good sex is going to solve all your problems...

 

And there is also a therapist’s advice that is so au courant in certain circles at the moment...

Just read The New York Times if you don’t believe me...

 

Which is that women do not need to concern themselves about what happens to their children...

Because they owe it to themselves to do what makes them happy....

 

Which is the message of so many films these days...

I’m not going to bore you listing them again...

 

Now, of course,

As always....

It doesn’t seem to matter...

 

That the practicality of the self actualization that each spouse longs for...

 

Would be problematic...

 

Mom would be unlikely to be able to support herself as an artist...
 

And would dad really  be happier giving up his teaching job and going back to being in a band?

 

Because the world is just dying for a 45 year old rock star...

 

And playing in a band  would really pay the bills...

 

Especially since this film is set in San Francisco...

Where people like this couple do not send their kids to public school...

 

But whatever....

 

Now this worn chestnut stars Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton...

Who are like Porsches on the race track...

 

Up against an electric scooter...

 

Which in this case is Seth Rogen...

 

Who always just plays Seth Rogen...

 

And Olivia Wilde...

 

Who gives us a caricature of a socially awkward insecure housewife....

That it is so cringe ...

She is hard to watch...

 

And so you wish she would just go away....

 

And that matters because The Invite is one of those drawing room dramas...

 

That seem to go forever...

 

Where no one gets killed...

And not much happens except two couples spar, flirt, confess...

And tease that they are going to go off and have sex with each other...

Which they never do...

 

And in the end nothing changes...

 

And Edward Albee did not write this screenplay...

 

And unfortunately....

 

Neither did Tracy Letts nor David Mamet...

 

So the acting has to carry this movie...

 

And Cruz and Norton are up to the task...

Rogen and Wilde are not...

 

And there was a missed opportunity here...

 

Because Cruz and Norton are written as self assured...

So in better hands that would have lent itself to a psychological battle between the two couples...

 

But Rogen and Wilde were too outmatched for that...

 

So instead we get the same old marital laundry hanging...

 

But Cruz and Norton are not an unhappy couple....

So the balance of couple dysfunction is off...

 

So nothing about this film works...

 

Except to remind you how good Cruz and Norton are ...

 

In everything...

 

And why Wilde should have thought twice about casting herself in a movie with people who can actually act...

 

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