You’re Cordially Invited
Rated R for language throughout, some sexual references
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 47%
Streaming on Amazon Prime
From writer/director Nicholas Stoller (Bros, Neighbors) comes this adult comedy about a father of the bride (Will Ferrell) who books a remote island inn for his daughter’s wedding, only to find out that his weekend wasn’t properly reserved due to the death of the person taking it down. So now he must share the inn with another wedding, booked by the sister of the bride (Reese Witherspoon). Since there is only room at the inn for one wedding party, the two bookers must passive aggressively fight it out. Throughout his career, Nicholas Stoller has been hit and miss, bringing us some terrific comedies followed up with some huge flops. This time we get the flop. The film has some merit in that Ferrell at times is hilarious and you could find yourself laughing really loud and hard. But then they buy the laugh back with an even bigger cringe. The writing is responsible for part of this, as the need is felt to actually explain the funny jokes. But also at fault is the distraction caused by a story that half the time doesn’t make sense. First off, the inn is small. It actually looks too small for one wedding party, but two is ridiculous. And apparently the closest hotel is across the lake and a three hour drive. So we are to believe that all these people (and there are a lot of them) are traveling to and fro to such a remote location? And then the timing of the beats is a mess. The scenes feel out of order, like they had multiple ideas for the same sequences and then just threw it all in a blender to see how it would come out. Ferrell and Witherspoon are so darn likable that you want to sit back and enjoy, but the movie almost dares you to do so, while it quickly proves why it went straight to streaming instead of going for a theatrical run first. And at almost two hours in length, the pain is unnecessarily prolonged. Perhaps with a trim, the problems could have been forgivable or even endearing, but as is, it is a train wreck with enough solid jokes to make you not completely hate it. C-
Danny Minton may be reached at danny@dannyminton.com.
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