'You're Cordially Invited' review: Odd couples, black sheep, & an alligator
Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell star in Nicholas Stoller's flat romantic comedy
When I watch a movie at home, especially if it’s something I’m seeing for the first time, I try to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Mostly, that means putting my phone well out of reach, usually in another room entirely.
I don’t think You’re Cordially Invited was meant to be watched distraction-free. Writer/director Nicholas Stoller’s film loudly telegraphs the same narrative information over and over; it’s perfect for the second-screen viewer.
It’s a romantic comedy that isn’t particularly romantic, and what laughs it does have are scattered sparsely across a story that can’t decide who or what it’s about.
You’re Cordially Invited reminded me of another recent, dire attempt to rejuvenate the movie-star-driven rom-com: Ticket to Paradise, where Julia Roberts and George Clooney play a separated couple whose daughter’s tropical wedding traps them together, and rekindles their romance.
For all that movie’s bland writing and poor attempts at cross-generational humor, Roberts and Clooney at least make convincing romantic sparring partners. The same cannot be said of Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell in this film.
Witherspoon is Margot, a high-powered reality TV exec, and Ferrell is Jim, a desperately protective single father.1 The two find themselves stuck on an island together, this time by poor wedding planning.
Margot’s sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) is getting married, and so is Jim’s only daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan). The venue they’ve chosen, a small island resort in Georgia, has double-booked them for the weekend.
Both Margot and Jim have a sentimental attachment to the island- she and her sister spent many summers there with their grandma, and Jim and his late wife were married there. Through a series of contrived, half-hearted exchanges, they agree to share the resort so both weddings can be accommodated.
It’s a classic odd couple setup, and I really wanted to root for it. Stoller has made some genuinely funny films in the past, and Witherspoon and Ferrell’s contrasting performance styles would be a perfect fit for the right script.
While there are hints at their central romance, it arrives much too late to land in any meaningful way. Instead, we’re forced to spend time with a dozen or so barely formed characters who pile on more narrative and backstory while participating in half-hearted gags and incest jokes.
Margot and Jim are friendly one minute and out to sabotage the other’s wedding the next. If their characters (or any character in this movie, really) were anchored in some recognizable humanity, it might work. Instead, the movie is a checklist of character motivations that don’t cohere because they’re repeated but never explored.
This is why it fails as both romance and comedy. Two black sheep finding love is romantic, alligator wrestling and collapsing docks are fun comedic gags, but it all rings completely false when the characters involved don’t feel like actual people.
You’re Cordially Invited is streaming on Prime Video.
His job is a punchline that is one of the movie’s few genuine laughs. I won’t spoil it in case you find yourself sitting through it.