Movie Review: "The Invitation"

"The Invitation": B+.  Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) haven't even reached the dinner party to which they've been invited in the Hollywood Hills when we get a couple of hints that things may a little out of whack.  First we see the invitation itself, beautifully designed on a heavy stock card, the type you might receive for a formal wedding. But for a dinner party?  Then in the twilight, Will's car slams into a coyote darting across the winding road.  The animal is mortally injured but still gasping as it lies in front of the vehicle.  Will puts the beast out of its misery with a tire iron.  Kira looks on through the windshield with astonishment.  She has never seen this side of the usually low-key Will before.  The Invitation is filled with little clues and tocsins like these.  The more we watch, the more we guess which ones are significant and which are red herrings.  Are we reading too much into things which may simply be part of the narrative?  Are we overlooking anything?

We soon learn that the hosts of the party are Eden (Tammy Blanchard), Will's ex-wife, and her new husband David (Michael Huisman).  The other guests, with one exception, are all mutual friends who apparently haven't seen either Will or Eden since their divorce two years ago.  There are hugs all around when Will and Kira enter the two story house.  The newcomer is Sadie (Lindsay Burdge), whose appearance is slightly disheveled.  She isn't in the living room with the others.  Will first spots her standing in a bedroom doorway.  She looks like a misfit.

There seem to be no hard feelings between Will and Eden, but they aren't exactly chummy either.  That is to be expected, given their history.  David is a gracious host, serving wine which he can't resist pointing out is a rare expensive vintage.  Kira joins in the friendly chatter and is at ease in the company of these people she's never met, but Will stays at a distance.  He meanders through the house, which used to be his.  It seems odd behavior for a house guest.  Something doesn't feel right. Is everything on the up and up?  If so, is Will imagining things?  Maybe everyone else is perfectly normal and Will is the weird one.

Then things occur in succession which, standing alone, might be unremarkable, but which taken together seem part of a bizarre plan.  But to what end?  Someone mentions there is no cell phone reception. Really?  In a residential neighborhood of Los Angeles?  There are metal bars across the windows, explained by Eden as merely decorative, but they weren't there when Will was her husband.  Another "outsider," Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch), arrives.  He is clearly at least twenty years older than the others.  Another misfit?  And why does David lock the door after Pruitt enters?  When asked about it by Will he claims there have been a lot of break-ins in the neighborhood lately.  Would you really be concerned about that with a dozen people in your house?

More bizarre happenings ensue.  Will spots David lighting a solo red lantern in the back yard, yet all the guests are inside.  Eden slaps one of her guests, Ben (Jay Larson), over a perceived insult when the two of them are in the kitchen with Will, then minutes later kisses Ben in front of everyone during a game of "I Want" in the living room.  David and Eden insist on showing a video of what appears to be a cult leader discussing how to cope with mental anguish.  The newlyweds were part of his group in Mexico, which is where they met the two outsiders, Sadie and Pruitt.  Through a short series of flashbacks we get more background on the demise of Eden and Will's marriage, and the link of that misfortune to the video.  Another guest, Claire (Marieh Delfino), insists on leaving the party, despite verbal attempts by the hosts to convince her to stay.  Pruitt follows Claire out the door, claiming his car is blocking hers.  Will, worried about her safety, watches her from a window, but is interrupted by David before Claire reaches her car.  Did she make it?  And where in the world is Choi?  His girlfriend is in the house, but he is yet to be seen.  Will has reason to believe Eden and David have nefariously harmed him before the other guests arrived.  By the same token, maybe it's simply a case of Will being paranoid. 

The Invitation was one of the films included in the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.  Before the festival started last month, the Star Tribune ran mini-reviews of the films which would be shown the first week, and I quickly added this movie to my must-see list .  Unfortunately Momma Cuan and I were not able to attend one of its two originally scheduled showings, but the movie was brought back by festival organizers for an encore as part of its Best Of Festival group, as voted on by screening audiences.  As I've written before, I favor movies which tell a story in such a way that, even though you feel that the movie is reaching its conclusion, you are not sure exactly what the outcome will be.  I did not see the ending coming.  All I know is that the hairs on the back of my neck were invigorated.