You DO NOT want The Invitation from these people. This movie is a trippy experience that also studies the effects of intense grief on people. Word of advice: if friends who disappear from the world for a couple years suddenly ask you to attend a dinner party, just say no.
After a terrifying coyote encounter, Will (Tom Hardy’s little brother, Logan Marshall-Green) and Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) arrive at the house of Will’s ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and new husband David (Michiel Huisman). Eden is having a dinner party among the former best friends of Eden and Will: Ben (Jay Larson), Gina (Michelle Krusiec), Tommy (Mike Doyle) and Miguel (Jordi Vilasuso). However, things immediately don’t make sense. Why are they playing creepy games? Why does David lock the doors? Why did Eden invite Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch) and Sadie (Lindsay Burge) even though no one knows who they are? These inconsistencies build up for Will, who isn’t exactly all together himself.
Like You’re Next a few years back, The Invitation is great making you feel uncomfortable. Will is our POV, and like him, we keep noticing these weird things happening. As a result, Will’s fragile psyche gets pushed to its limit and he starts to have hallucinations of past events during the real life dinner party. This throws the audience off even more. By the time stuff starts going down, I was so confused in a good way that the action was almost a release of the tension. In addition, the final 5 minutes of The Invitation throws in a stellar twist to the story that made me gasp in my seat. The weirdness comes across too artificial at times, but in general, the slow set up earns most of the artificiality of the scenes, and you’ll be too uneasy to pay too close attention.
The Invitation is also a subtle study of how grief and trauma can affect individually and collectively. These people have not come together because of the traumatic event that tore apart Will and Eden. You see the group reminiscing, but they are not really friends anymore, they are mostly just going through the motions. Personally, Will and Eden are at odds because of their different coping mechanisms. Eden lives basically in denial now, and Will chooses to live with his pain. This leads to some sharp conversations between the two of them that strike multiple nerves. Deeper than that, we see the effects of the two lifestyles: Will hurts, but he is at least living a grounded life, while Eden bottles up her feeling and unexpectedly reacts when she loses control.
All the actors here have been around the periphery of the mainstream. Logan Marshall-Green was in Prometheus, but here he does an awesome job playing a man in perpetual morning. Green captures the minute-to-minute struggle of a man trying to move forward but unable to do so. Tammy Blanchard, conversely, plays bottled up denial extremely well. I was fearful almost immediately from Blanchard’s ability to lash out. Michiel Huisman, John Carroll Lynch, and Lindsay Burge are great as well at playing damaged goods, bringing different characteristics of the grieving process to the table. On the lighter side, props to Jay Larson for bringing some needed levity to the party. He’s the dude I related the most to.
The Invitation provides the surface level enjoyment with a deep undercurrent of character study on grief. It is a scary, slow burn, but it builds nicely and will haunt you after you watch it. Some little advice: when the people who invite you to a dinner party show you a creepy “inspirational” video, just leave immediately. Also, the writers of Ride Along can also craft a super intense horror-thriller. Who knew?