“It’s okay, I’m not offended. A lot of people think we’re crazy. But I doubt they’re as happy as we are.”
David
Through an unsettling dinner party, The Invitation reflects the social anxiety of reconnecting with friends after a long time apart, only to find that they have changed significantly in the interim. That disquiet could not be more appropriate for a world on the brink of reopening after more than a year keeping people apart. By contrast to the disappointingly uneven tone of Jennifer’s Body, here Karyn Kusama successfully maintains the taut atmosphere throughout the first two thirds of the movie, albeit at a steady pace rather than the more skillful rise and fall of similar scenes in The Overnight. We experience the evening through the perspective of a single character, and Logan Marshall-Green plays the role as sufficiently troubled to make the audience question his reliability. Unfortunately, the final act — which should provide a sense of release once the mysteries are laid bare — instead drags far too long; as such, it fails to offer the catharsis one desires after prolonged tension.
6/10
