A double-booked wedding: a nightmarish scenario for those able to afford to rent out an entire venue, or in this case, a small island.
Nicholas Stoller’s latest comedy pairs Will Ferrell against Reese Witherspoon. One is the father of the bride-to-be, played by Geraldine Viswanathan, and the other is the sister of a bride-to-be, played by Meredith Hagner. And when their venue, a secluded and small island, is double booked for their favourite person’s special day, the two have to learn to make it work or make each other live a living hell. Do we care about what the rest of the families think? No. Could this upset and risk the relationship of the people we’re supposedly doing all this for in the form of a daughter and sister? No.
It’s not entirely as predictable as I thought, but pretty darn close; You’re Cordially Invited is the perfect comedy for a streaming service. It’s pretty forgettable and will mostly be watched by people who are ironing their clothes at the same time, anyway. This is fine because if you look up periodically, you’ll be able to catch one of the film’s two or three solid gags, and the rest of the time, the multitasking will help with the film’s outrageous nearly two-hour runtime.
There’s a version of this film where Geraldine Viswanathan gets to lead, and you can do more or less the same story, and it’s a lot more exciting with a fresher face at the forefront, but instead, it is Ferrell and Witherspoon. Both of whom have done good things recently, like Barbie or The Morning Show, but here they are giving you exactly what you’d expect: lots of shouting and lots of back-and-forth that seems adlibbed and not in a good way.
The film’s highlight is a scene involving a crocodile in the trailer and on the poster. It’s oddly more offbeat than the rest of the film, which would have helped it, but for the most part, this is trying to be pretty appealing to as many audiences as possible, and it’s certainly worse for it.
(Screener provided to Explosion Network.
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