As the ending credits roll on the perfectly mediocre You’re Cordially Invited, various members of the cast, stretching from the main stars to the one-scene cameos, are filmed singing a song in the kind of Hollywood B-roll tradition of the 1980s and 90s. It’s a charming touch, and one that gives us evidence that the cast and crew obviously had a terrific time making the movie together. You might wish that some of that joy rubbed off on the movie itself, which goes through the motions of its wedding day, enemies-to-lovers plot with the nonchalance of a production that knows that it’s going directly to streaming. The movie premiered on Amazon Prime Friday, January 31st, in a move so lacking in fanfare, you might think it beneath the film’s major stars, Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon. When you see the movie, you begin to understand.
The film is directed by Nicholas Stoller, a filmmaker who began his directing career with Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008 and has never really recaptured that greatness. Neighbors and The Five-Year Engagement are both very funny, and at times, very moving comedies, but by this point we understand that Stoller has a very low ceiling. Like many Apatow-adjacent filmmakers, he leans on the improvisation of his actors, a technique that lets him off the hook of actually, you know, directing a performance. Stoller also wrote Invited‘s script, and the film is a well-meaning crowd-pleaser, starring two huge stars, who do their best to elevate middling material. Ferrell is one of the most dependable comedic actors of the last twenty-five years, while Witherspoon is an Oscar-winning actor whose shown a legendary range within mainstream and independent Hollywood movies. If Stoller has a low ceiling, than these two stars have a very high floor.
That said, one still has expectations when you see those two actors on the poster. Maybe not of high quality – no one turns this movie on thinking they’re getting anything the critics will love – but perhaps a more sophisticated approach to broad material. The movie leans more toward Ferrell’s sophomoric juvenilia than Witherspoon’s manneristic comedic stylings. That Stoller does this while still courting emotional sentiment creates a tension that the movie never really reconciles. Throw in a truly painful cameo from one of the Jonas brothers (I refuse to dignify the appearance by looking up which one it was), and you get a movie that falls well short of its potential even if it is, ultimately, watchable. Compare that to another wedding-set streaming movie, the 2018 Adam Sandler film, The Week Of, which is also nowhere near great, but at least has the conviction of being total in its sentimentality, and as a result, feels like something closer to a complete film.
Ferrell plays Jim, a widower whose daughter, Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), has just graduated and has impulsively gotten engaged to her DJ boyfriend Oliver (Stony Blyden). Jim is nervous not only because of their young age, but because the marriage threatens the already tenuous connection he has to his rapidly growing daughter. Her marriage will cement his lonely, empty-nest status. Witherspoon plays Margot, a reality television producer and workaholic, whose only pleasant family relationship is with her sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner). Neve is getting married to Dixon (Jimmy Tatro) a himbo and exotic dancer. If Neve seems way out of Dixon’s league, Margot decides to ignore it to ensure her sister’s happiness. Both Jenni and Neve want to get married at Palmetto Island, a secluded locale in coastal Georgia. Through a bizarre mishap, they end up booked on the same weekend, a set-up that creates sparks between the overbearing Jim and Margot.
After intense negotiation, the two create a tentative plan to share the island for both weddings in an effort to keep their daughter and sister, respectively, happy. Jim must contend with Jenni’s party animal friends and his still festering feelings about his daughter’s oncoming departure from his watchful eye. Margot must contend with her Southern family, whom she treats with judgmental disdain when she recognizes them at all. Margot’s mother, Flora (Celia Weston), is a pillar of Southern niceties and persistent criticism, nitpicking her older daughter’s every decision. All the while, Jim and Margot must contend with one another, both convinced that the other is planning some form of sabotage. Jack McBrayer arrives as the venue’s put-upon manager, trying to pick up the pieces of their continued hostilities.
Stoller’s script has some misdirection in a sea of cliché. Ultimately, what we expect to happen happens, even if the script doesn’t really build the foundation to earn it. Ferrell and Witherspoon comport themselves well. Neither can be accused of not committing to the story’s earnestness, even if they sometimes flounder in the movie’s attempt to spark romance between them. The best performance of the film comes from Weston, whose Flora is the only character who overcomes the simplistic manner in which Stoller wrote her. There are several monologues in the film’s final act that “turn serious”, but only Weston’s hits the appropriate mark of emotional resonance that builds over the course of the movie.
This is a perfectly fine movie to watch at home on a winter weekend. The first month of the year has always been defined as the dumping ground for the studios, cutting bate with projects they hope will find an audience amongst a Fall season hangover. The stakes are pretty low here, and that casualness may play a part into just how relaxed everyone seems to be. Maybe too relaxed. If Companion was the perfect genre piece to reignite the viewer after awards season glut, You’re Cordially Invited feels like the studio also-ran, no oversight and no expectation. Many will be happy enough to see a film starring such luminaries of the 2000s, and I wouldn’t blame them. I just think Will and Reese deserve a little bit better than this.
Directed by Nicholas Stoller