The Invitation review: A delicious serving of psychological drama, even if it does make you wait for your food.
The Invitation review
The Invitation comes to the screen from Girlfight, Jennifer’s Body and Aeon Flux director Katyn Kusama. From a script by Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay, the film centers on a group of thirty-somethings who are invited to a reunion dinner with an old friend, Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her new partner David (Michiel Huisman).
Amongst the estranged friends invited to the party is Will (Logan Marshall-Green), Eden’s former partner, with whom she sadly suffered a great loss with two years earlier, and his new girlfriend, Kera (Emayatzy Corinealdi). There’s also Michelle Krusiec‘s Gina, whose partner Choi has mysteriously disappeared on his way to the party, or might just be running exceptionally late, partners Tommy and Miguel, single girl Claire, and the mysterious stranger Sadie. Oh, and character actor John Carroll Lynch also turns up for added support as the spooky late-addition Pruitt.
The Invitation review
What follows during this very heavy, paranoia-filled dinner party, is a twisty, very slow-burning psychological drama that really takes its time in getting to where it ultimately intends. The 100-minute movie takes nearly 90 minutes to reach a turning point in the story, which does reveak itself to be worth it when it eventually gets there.
The cast are decent, the direction solid, and the story, though very meandering, actually pretty engrossing throughout, with just about enough going on to maintain your interest.
While some questions remain intentionally unanswered as we reach the end, we do feel satisfied as we reach our destination, though a final plot twist may be one too far during the final frames.
The Invitation review
Overall, we had a good time with this gripping party piece, which may make us all think twice about saying yes to any kind of random dinner invitation, if one should turn up in the post.
A delicious serving of psychological drama, even if it does make you wait for your food.
