(by Lucia Magi)
It may well be true, as Tolstoy argued, that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. And yet, it is not hard to recognise oneself in the one depicted by Olivia Wilde in 'The Invite - Il piacere è tutto nostro': a millennial couple worn down by routine, by desires that fade and by personal expectations left half-fulfilled.
In the film, released in cinemas thanks to I Wonder Pictures, Angela (Wilde herself) and Joe (Seth Rogen) have been married long enough to have a teenage daughter and a lovely apartment in San Francisco, full of good taste and old resentments. Bitterness seeps through every conversation. All it takes is a compliment from one for the other to bristle: "Couldn't you say that more often?" Their lives are stale, their relationship taken for granted. They desperately need a jolt.
It comes from upstairs, in the form of Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), their charming and uninhibited neighbours, happily unmarried, whose nocturnal activities are rather noisy. Joe, returning from work at the mediocre music conservatory where he teaches, is delighted to find cheeses and cold cuts on the table. The pleasure turns to horror when Angela — after scolding him for "forgetting the wine" — explains that the food is meant for the neighbours, whom she has invited to dinner. He is certain she never told him. She insists she did. In the middle of the argument, the doorbell rings.
"I like the idea that Piña and Hawk are a kind of projection. There is a moment of combustion where Angela and Joe are screaming at each other, admitting: 'We are unhappy.' That instant of truth opens a kind of magic portal through which the neighbours appear, materialising almost out of nowhere," Wilde says on the sidelines of a screening in Los Angeles.
And so begins an "unromantic comedy" about sex, marriage and partner-swapping. Amid embarrassments, barbed remarks, a deflating soufflé and an unexpectedly vegan guest, the two "intruders" lay bare the stagnation, the distance and the pain of their hosts. They are their perfect nemesis: sexy, in tune with each other and non-monogamous, while the hosts appear crushed by habit and recrimination, almost camouflaged into the furnishings (the blouse Angela wears is exactly the same shade as the walls). With bold irony, precise direction and actors in top form, the comedy veers towards drama.
"I grew up loving the films of Mike Nichols, Woody Allen, Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron. I love comedies. I always wanted to find a project that would let me approach a film like a stage play: rehearsing, shooting scenes in chronological order and using film stock. I had these dreams," reflects the 42-year-old, on her third directorial outing after the teen comedy 'Booksmart' and the thriller 'Don't Worry Darling.' "When I received Will McCormack and Rashida Jones's adaptation of the Spanish film 'Sentimental' by Cesc Gay, itself based on Gay's stage play, I read it, laughed a great deal, and thought it was perfect for my experiment. If I could bring together the best actors, maybe I could pull it off."
"Seth and I," Wilde confides, "belong to the same Hollywood generation, we've known each other for 25 years and have watched each other grow and change. We auditioned together for 'Knocked Up,' but I didn't get the part. We had to wait until 'The Studio' to work together. It only took two
days on set to fall in love with acting again and
understand that I wanted him in this film."
Cruz, a veteran of Pedro Almodóvar's comedies, with smiles
that quickly turn into punches to the stomach, sexy and free as in
Woody Allen's 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona', is the embodiment of
everything Angela would like to be: a therapist-sexologist,
sensual and self-assured, direct and in tune with her own
body and feelings. "Edward filled his character," states
Wilde. "He called me to put himself forward for the role.
He said: 'I love the original film and I have ideas about how
we can transform it together into something new
and fresh.' Before Edward worked on it, the neighbour had a bland
name like Lance, he was the young, sexy fireman from upstairs
and wasn't even remotely as layered," the filmmaker
recounts.
Wilde reflects: "A principle from psychotherapist Esther Perel stuck with me,
according to which one can have multiple relationships within the same relationship. It seemed to me such an optimistic and realistic way of looking at a long-term commitment: you can't expect never to change or evolve. In fact, that is a sure way to make a relationship fail. But you are allowed to begin a new relationship with that same person, if you choose to do so."
Will Angela and Joe overcome their crisis? The Oscar
Wilde quote that opens the film would seem like a negative forecast:
"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never
marry." But when Wilde asks for a show of hands as to how many think the two will stay together and
how many think they will split up, the audience is divided down the middle.
"Everyone finds their own way to survive," the director concludes.
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