The Invitation

19

I’m not sure what possessed me to turn this one on. I feel like perhaps I was algorhythmed into it. Or just hit a wall with everything else in my queue and gave it a whirl. I’m not going to promise this is the last time I let this happen to me, but perhaps I take a break from putting on stuff I know nothing about? Eh, who am I fooling? I love watching movies with little-to-no previous info. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it’s The Invitation. A movie that definitely thinks it’s more clever than it actually is. A movie that thinks it’s more mysterious than it actually is. A movie that thinks it’s scarier and more thrilling than it actually is. Because, frankly, it’s none of those things. It’s a slightly dull, rote thriller that makes absolutely no sense while it’s happening, or in its “twist” conclusion that feels like something that you might find crumpled up in M. Night’s wastebasket in 1997.

The inciting event in The Invitation revolves around — you guessed it — an invitation! Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend, Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), are on their way to a dinner party in the Hollywood Hills hosted by Will’s ex-wife, Eden (Tammy Blanchard), and her new husband, David (Michiel Huisman). It seems Will hasn’t seen his ex in some time and is surprised by this sudden invite and weirded out by the fancy wedding-like invitation they received in its honor. All of this is fine. In fact, they set up Will and Kira as a relatable couple, which makes it seem that at some juncture we’ll see them go through some stuff. Even though they — for absolutely no narrative reason — hit a coyote on the way and Will has to put it out of its misery with a tire iron. Because, this is a psychological thriller, after all. And in some write-ups is categorized as psychological horror. But I refused that tag because, honestly, it’s not. Hell, it’s barely “psychological.” But, as soon as we settle into team Will / Kira, she just kind of vanishes from the film. She’s there at this dinner party, sure, but Will basically skulks around the house, does a bunch of shit on his own and interacts with pretty much everyone else during their time there beside her. While we see her chatting or sitting in the background. It’s a weird, disorienting miss.

Our couple — who subsequently don’t seem that into each other — show up to this awkward gathering with the ex and new husband and some of what I can only assume are the couple’s old friends. I will give you exactly one guess why Will and Eden are no longer married? What’s the biggest trope in couple dissolution ever? The one that causes the most tension and trauma, but faults neither? It’s a dead kid! Of course it is! Do we know much about the dead son other than it seems he died at birthday party when another kid hit him in the head with the piñata bat (which is really dumb)? We do not. Do we learn anything relevant about this child — you know, since the crux of this whole thing is based on the relationship people have with trauma and sadness? We do not. But suffice it to say that Will is still sad about it, but, after a trip to Mexico to some wellness retreat of some sort (where she met David), Eden seems over it. Good for her. We learn pretty quickly, in an incredibly oddball, convoluted scene, that this retreat is clearly run by a cult leader. Which most of the dinner guests seem to awkwardly recognize, but I suppose sort of ignore because Eden seems to have benefitted from it. Even though Huissman plays David in a super-creepy, cult-addled way. I mean, as a viewer things feel super-off. I don’t know these people, but if I were the new girlfriend, Kira, I would have excused myself, gotten in the car and headed for the first police station. Because you can just feel this is going to go sideways. One character, Claire, does actually bail after being shown a weird promo video for the cult and then being asked to play a really uncomfortable “game,” but she is maybe, possibly not allowed to leave by David. It’s honestly poor filmmaking, as we can’t really see what’s going on when she takes off. An obfuscation that was necessary plot-wise, but poorly executed to the point it muddled things.

Let’s see. One of the friends played by a guy named Jay Larson only exposes that Jay is not an actor. He feels more like a stand-up trying to act, and also doesn’t really fit with the rest of the fancy friends. It’s an odd casting choice. I’ll have to assume he’s buddies with the director or something. At one point Eden asks Will to “get more firewood.” Issue being, there is no indication that there is a fire burning anywhere — which the “more” would indicate. Honestly, I’m not even sure there’s a fireplace in the house, but the plot demanded Will go somewhere at that point. There’s also a constant refrain of Will asking why all the house’s doors are locked and why there have been bars installed on the windows (remembering that he had once lived there with Eve). And David just mumbles something about there being break-ins in the neighborhood. Thing is, at various points people totally walk out the large sliders, which are not, in fact, locked. Having grown up with similar mid-century L.A. sliders, they don’t lock like that. If you’re on the inside, you can open them without a problem. Will would know this. And so would a writer. But this is fantasyland where nobody seems to be suspicious, and a house that locked from the inside (even though sometimes it’s not) isn’t at all a red flag to anyone but the “paranoid” guy.

Needless to say, everything eventually goes to hell. Which, again, shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone. Not mysterious. Not thrilling. Just a bunch of completely stupid violence. And some questionable crime scene maintenance — one of our main characters carrying a dying person from the house to the front yard for truly no reason other than she asks them to. There are also some interactions between Kira and one other surviving guest — who I don’t think actually know each other — where they act as if they’re old besties. Continuity not being exactly top of the list here. The whole endeavor just feels like a lot of nonsensical CliffsNotes non-psychology and a bunch of wheel spinning just to get to the shooting and stabbing. It’s all so… anti-intellectual and disappointing. There is what could be construed as a twist at the end, but when you give it more than three seconds of thought, it too doesn’t make any sense. Because the screenwriter didn’t build the up the whole story of the cult enough to make it have any impact. It’s all cursory and anemic. In order for the end to work — despite the movie up to that point being a big miss — you, as the viewer, would have to look back at earlier events and genuinely be informed enough to be shocked. But, no, that didn’t happen. There is one thing that ties in the end — the lighting of a red lamp — but it’s a bolt-on thing that itself doesn’t tie into anything before or after it. Unfortunately the film just doesn’t hang together narratively, or create anything compelling enough to warrant even a “at least it was cool” rating from me. I’m going to have to RSVP “no” to this one.