Olivia Wilde returns to directing with The Invite, a comedy starring Penélope Cruz, Seth Rogen and Edward Norton.
Four years after Don’t Worry Darling, Olivia Wilde is back behind the camera to explore romantic relationships. This time, however, she leaves science fiction and psychological horror behind to venture into an uncomfortable comedy about marriage, desire and everything couples avoid saying to one another.
The Invite, which will arrive in Spanish cinemas on 16 October, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received an enthusiastic reception. Months later, it made its European debut in Locarno and, speaking to Variety during the festival, Wilde described it as one of the most important experiences of her career.
Shot almost entirely inside an apartment, the story follows Angela and Joe, a married couple going through a profound crisis. The arrival of their neighbours, Piña and Hawk, who appear to be fulfilled both emotionally and sexually, transforms an ordinary dinner into a kind of collective couples therapy session.
Through uncomfortable conversations, provocations and secrets that gradually come to light, the four characters are forced to confront their desires, frustrations and expectations. What begins as an evening between neighbours ultimately raises the question of how well we truly know the person with whom we share our life.
A new version of Sentimental
The film is the English-language adaptation of Sentimental, directed by Cesc Gay in 2020 and itself based on his stage play The People Upstairs. For this new version, Rashida Jones and Will McCormack have written a screenplay that retains the essence of the original story while introducing its own perspective on emotional exhaustion, intimacy and long-term relationships.
Wilde has cited filmmakers such as Billy Wilder, Mike Nichols and Nora Ephron as references. Her intention was to find humour in recognisable situations, even when they are painful. Laughing at problems experienced by other couples, she believes, can help people feel less alone.
Developing the characters was an especially collaborative process. Before filming began, the cast spent two weeks reading and revising the script. Ideas continued to emerge during production, with the actors suggesting changes and new possibilities for their characters.
That dynamic allowed the film to operate almost like a stage play: four people, a single space and a conversation that becomes progressively more honest. As well as directing, Wilde plays Angela, a woman frustrated with her professional life and disconnected from a marriage that appears to be approaching its end.
Falling in love with the same person again
At the beginning of the film, a reflection by Oscar Wilde links marriage with the end of falling in love. Although the quotation appears to anticipate a pessimistic outlook, the director says the story ultimately became far more romantic than she had originally imagined.
At first, Wilde was convinced she was telling the story of a couple’s definitive break-up. During the process, however, she realised that the film could also explore the possibility of finding one another again. “We can have multiple relationships with the same person,” she explains, referring to the evolution of a couple who need to leave one stage behind in order to build something different.
The filmmaker is not suggesting that every relationship should be saved. Instead, her point is that people change and, if they want to remain together, they need to learn how to get to know each other again. Living together is not simply about preserving the initial connection unchanged, but accepting that a relationship can transform several times over the years.
To explore these ideas more deeply, Wilde turned to psychotherapist Esther Perel, who specialises in relationships, desire and intimacy. The director was already personally familiar with her work, having been a patient of hers years earlier, but admits that she needed to go through different romantic experiences and make this film before she could fully understand some of Perel’s ideas.
One of the central concepts is that no partner should carry the responsibility of completing the other person. Before building a healthy relationship, each individual needs to recognise themselves as independent and accept responsibility for their own decisions. Blaming a partner for every source of personal dissatisfaction may be easier, but it can also prevent someone from recognising what genuinely needs to change.
The challenges of directing as a mother
Wilde has also connected her development as a director with the example set by her mother, Leslie Cockburn, a journalist and war correspondent. As a child, she struggled to understand why her mother did not live the same kind of life as her friends’ mothers, but over time she came to recognise the importance of growing up alongside a woman with such a demanding career.
For the actress and filmmaker, the guilt associated with motherhood remains one of the obstacles contributing to the lack of women directing major productions. Female directors, she argues, continue to feel judged when their work keeps them away from home, a pressure that is rarely placed on their male counterparts in the same way.
At 42, Olivia Wilde appears to have channelled those personal and professional experiences into a film that does not attempt to offer a foolproof formula for saving a marriage. The Invite proposes something more uncomfortable: loving someone for a long time may also mean saying goodbye to the relationship you once had in order to discover whether it is still possible to begin another one with the same person.
