You're Cordially Invited - Review

Rating: 2 out of 5

THE pairing of Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in a wedding themed romantic comedy, from the director of past hits such as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Five Year Engagement, might seem like an enticing proposal. Sadly, You’re Cordially Invited is more likely to attract a dismal reception.

Loud, unfunny and predictable, the film attempts to mine most of its laughs from cringe inducing scenarios that play out in excruciatingly bad fashion, or juvenile prank playing that negate any attempt to give it any emotional depth.

The premise finds two wedding parties double booked on the same small island on the same weekend.

Group one is led by Jim (Ferrell), the single parent dad to beloved daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), who is planning to wed her DJ wannabe boyfriend - prompting Jim to descend into separation anxiety as the nuptials threaten to place their close relationship under threat.

Group two finds TV producer Margot (Witherspoon) assuming wedding planning duties for her sister Neve (Meredith Hagner), who is looking to tie the knot with her stripper boyfriend (Jimmy Tatro). Margot is keen to take control to both shield Neve from their overbearing Southern family and to conceal her sister’s pregnancy.

With so much emotion at play, it’s hardly surprising that it doesn’t take much for Jim and Margot to fall out. But rather than grounding the comedy in any kind of believable reality, Stoller goes for broad strokes that cheapen proceedings.

For staters, the central relationship between Ferrell and Viswanathan doesn’t ring true - it’s played too broadly, with cloying greeting techniques and contrived swings between arguing and cuddling. Viswanathan also comes with her own entourage of wannabe influencers - all spouting their own language and Tik Tok baiting appeal, who seem designed with only memes in mind. If Stoller is trying to say something about social media and its impact on its target generation, then he falls flat.

While bantering and dissections on the appropriateness of terms like “bitch” also feel ponderous and badly judged.

Any attempt to properly explore the feelings of anxiety being experienced by Ferrell's dad, meanwhile, are glossed over too quickly - which undermines any of the decent dramatic work that the actor sometimes puts in. There are some genuine emotions at play, here - but they're disregarded in favour of cheap jokes and abrupt changes in tone.

The same criticism applies to Witherspoon’s side, with her own feelings of isolation and estrangement from her family too easily overlooked in search of the next so-called laugh - although the relationship between her and Hagner is, at least, nicely played and allows for some commentary on family dynamics and expectations that may resonate with some.

But Witherspoon is at her best when tempering things down, which sadly there isn’t enough of. Instead, Stoller has her ramped up to feverish levels, attempting to get one over Jim and be in control of everything and everyone - a performance pitched somewhere between her turns in Legally Blonde and Election, with very little of the nuance that made those so memorable.

Given that so much of the character work feels like a missed opportunity, viewers may rightly hope that the film delivers more on the big comedy moments. But even these miss the mark.

An inappropriate duet between Ferrell and Viswanathan is too obvious and over-milked (and ultimately just plain cringe), inevitable pratfalls involving wedding cakes or black eyes to brides lack spontaneity, and even the sight of Ferrell wrestling a crocodile (obviously fake) feel laboured and over-played.

The end result is a comedy that wants to have its cake and eat it… a film that drifts from being bawdy, mean-spirited and profane one minute to touchy-feely and sentimental the next. There’s also an inevitability to every character arc that feels woefully contrived, to the point of indifference from the audience.

Ferrell and Witherspoon emerge with their reputations just about intact. But for a film with so much potential, this winds up being another in the long list of wedding comedies (from Bride Wars to Margot At The Wedding) that deserve to be jilted as quickly from memory as possible.