In ‘The Invite’ marriage is a tragicomedy

Joe (Seth Rogen) was once in a band but has since resigned himself to being a music teacher. Angela (Olivia Wilde) has a postgraduate degree in the Arts but has since poured all her creativity into their beautifully curated apartment with its mismatched tiles and perfectly arranged flowers. They argue about their neighbours; Pina, a Spanish sexologist (Penelope Cruz), and Hawk, a former firefighter (Edward Norton). Pina and Hawk’s sex lives are as prolific as they are noisy.

What starts as a comedy of manners with lots of conversation around good energy and verbal foreplay ends up as a meditation on grief, living life to its fullest, and the beauty of everyday life. Of late, there have been many explorations of modern relationships, from Materialists (2025) to this year’s The Drama, which hint at a larger crisis of modern love. Wilde’s watchful directorial eye and her tense, uptight performance, makes you see you’re in the presence of an unusual voice. As an English adaptation of the Spanish The People Upstairs, this chamber piece has just four actors, all at the top of their game, with closeups highlighting real feelings in the age of iPhone faces.