You are cordially invited not to take the lead (critic)
As long as it is not taken too seriously, this sweet family comedy is not as stupid as it looks.
Will Ferrell vs. Reese Witherspoon. This is the good idea that justifies You are cordially invitedwhich is released today on Prime Video. A wacky comedy full of feelings signed by the excellent Nicholas Stoller. The director of Without Sarah nothing goes (2008), Bros. (2023) and the brilliant series Platonic (On Apple in 2023) has become a great specialist of this kind that he loves to transcend.
This time, it is the wedding comedy that he reinvents in a family fable, less stupid than she looks. You are cordially invitedit is first of all the story of Jim, a widower to the big heart that organizes the marks of his only daughter, on a small heavenly island. Except that the only hotel in the area will mix the brushes and plan a second wedding at the same time, that of Margot’s sister, a young producer with long teeth, who has distanced her family. The misunderstanding is established. The war of weddings is inevitable. The father against the sister: round 1 …
As often, Nicholas Stoller Play the opposite view. While a big farce in the way of the Farrelly brothers seemed to be evident, You are cordially invited Avoids the pitfall of the backbone, and actually draws a large gallery of touching characters, anchored in reality. Stoller manages surprisingly to speak of solitude, paternity, and injects a good dose of emotion to his buffoonery, who assumes at the same time his share of pure comedy (the fight with the alligator is really demented).
Will Ferrell is the embodiment of this double personality, capable of being both sociopath with a mad view of Serial wedding (2005), and at the same time the tender lost sentimental glimpsed in Harold Crick’s incredible fate (2006). His step of two with Reese Witherspoon is fun, but also sometimes disconcerting. Because that by dint of walking on a thread between these two shades, the ambitious comedy seems a little fellow, fighting to find his real tone, so that we no longer know if the film wants us to laugh or make us cry. A priori a bit of both, without ever fully leading to one or the other.
You are cordially invited is not the greatest success of Nicholas Stollerit is undeniable. But the director proves once again that he knows how to take us backwards. And then we will at least keep the improbable duo of Will Ferrell and his daughter (played by Geraldine Viswanathan), and their brilliantly inappropriate cover of “Islands in the Stream”. Just for that …
You are cordially invited, from Nicholas Stoller, to see on Prime Video on January 30, 2025.