The stars play the sister and father of rival girlfriends fighting over the same spot in a big-screen-worthy comedy from “The Five-Year Engagement” writer-director Nicholas Stoller.
It’s a sign of the times that a good, old-fashioned date movie starring two of the most bankable movie stars of the early 2000s, Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell, is completely bypassing theaters in early 2025. When it comes to writer-director Nicholas Stoller’s latest romantic comedy (if that’s the word for a movie in which two adults set out to sabotage each other’s wedding plans), you’re cordially invited to watch “You’re Cordially Invited” at home. The Prime release should do just fine on any scale while its stars are at each other’s throats, but it misjudges their chemistry in a gratuitous, slightly off-putting epilogue.
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Writer: Nicholas Stoller
Stars: Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon, Geraldine Viswanathan
As Jim, Ferrell is the first to be introduced, concerned about his Gen Z daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), who upsets the balance with her widowed father when she announces she’s engaged to the one-dimensional Oliver (Stony Blyden) (future boyfriends can’t be too memorable, or they’d divert the adults’ attention). Ever since Jenni’s mother died, Jim has pinned all his happiness on her feelings, and when it comes time for his only daughter to get married, he wants everything to be perfect, so he calls up Palmetto House, the island resort where he and his late wife tied the knot, and books the place.
For her part, Witherspoon returns to “Sweet Home Alabama” mode, assuming the character would never have gotten married in the first place: She plays Margot, a high-strung Los Angeles television producer who has cut off almost all contact with her prejudiced Georgia family, aside from her younger sister, Nev (Meredith Hagner), who is madly in love with a devoted but dim-witted Chippendales dancer (Jimmy Tatro). Nev’s situation, plus the news that she’s pregnant, brings out Margot’s protective instincts, and she immediately goes into wedding-planner mode, promising her sister an unforgettable ceremony.
There’s just one problem: The idyllic island resort that both Jim and Margot made reservations at has accidentally doubled in size, and the venue isn’t big enough for both parties. Rival planners might get defensive of poor Leslie (Jack McBrayer), the exasperated manager of Palmetto House, or insist on having the place all to themselves. Instead, they tentatively agree to share the space… which is a recipe for conflict with two control freaks involved.
On Margot’s side, there’s the rest of her family to worry about: Her hypercritical mother (Celia Weston) can’t let anything go by without complaint, even though everyone but Margot thinks she’s a sweetheart. She’s further annoyed by her siblings, whether it’s caveman Colton (Rory Scovel), who refers to his wife as “the wife,” or heavy-drinking, highly inappropriate Gwyneth (scene-stealer Leanne Morgan), who turns one-liners like “I put spray tan on, if you’re wondering what that smell smells like” or “If I wasn’t married, I’d ride it up like a redwood tree” into instant, quotable classics.
Morgan, a Tennessee comedian with a raspy, funny accent, could very well be this movie’s answer to Melissa McCarthy. While nothing can match the hit Bridesmaid's performance, Stoller follows director Paul Feig's lead in recognizing that a wedding comedy is only as entertaining as its guests. Upon meeting Margot's clan, it's easy to understand why she sought refuge as far away as possible, and yet Jim instantly hits it off with her family, which only makes matters worse.
Meanwhile, there's something fishy about Jim and Jenni's codependent dynamic (the way he does his daughter's hair and insists on baking the wedding cake himself) that could be coded as him having skeletons (or more) in the closet. Instead of giving a speech, he invites Jenni to do a duet, but her song, "Islands in the Stream," is wildly inappropriate for a father to sing to his daughter. The lyrics were clearly intended from one lover to another, aha.
Whether they're playing bad guys or good guys, Witherspoon and Ferrell are two of the few stars who can be charming even when they're trying to sabotage someone else's biggest moment, and "You're Cordially Invited" is at its funniest when they're on the warpath. The trailer has teased most of the big jokes, from the disaster at the dock to Jim wrestling an alligator, but Stoller's script is strong enough that the film's pleasures are far from ruined.
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