Cordially uninvite yourself from seeing this unfunny clamor
You’re Cordially Invited is built around the sort of romantic-comedy conceit you’d find supporting a plethora of its ilk from the 1990s and early 2000s: a wedding venue is unknowingly double-booked by two eccentric families. This logline is a promising opportunity for comedic hijinks, set-pieces, and confrontations. Unfortunately, You’re Cordially Invited stumbles through its vignette-styled plot without a shred of consideration for how and why anything is happening. Despite noble attempts by the film’s two leads, Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, to hold it afloat, You’re Cordially Invited is a middling straight-to-streaming title, destined to play unwatched in the background of more engaging home activities.
You’re Cordially Invited begins with Jim (Will Ferrell) and Margot (Reese Witherspoon) double-booking the Palmetto, a remote island hotel and wedding venue in Atlanta. The double booking occurs due to a far-fetched, not-so-funny administrative error; therefore Jim’s daughter, Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), and Margot’s sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), must share the venue on their respective special days. Margot and Jim resort to sabotaging one another’s wedding plans. The Palmetto, supposedly, is not near another lodging, nor does it seem to have more than one room, a bridal suite. Hundreds of attendees appear out of nowhere for each wedding (over multiple days) which made me wonder where they were all staying and how they were getting to-and-from the venue. Jenni’s friends, played by a group of young comedic actors trying way too hard to be funny, are incredibly annoying. Ferrell and Witherspoon have a couple moments of fast-paced bickering that land a few jokes, but otherwise the laughs are rare. Celia Weston, as Margot’s uppity sarcastic mother, is the only actor who leaves the movie unscathed. She’s hilarious and the most entertaining part of the film.
As if the studio gave the filmmakers a checklist before the final cut was approved, an otherwise ignored romantic spark between Jim and Margot is shoe-horned into the final ten minutes of the film. If you’re having trouble picturing a romantic spark between Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, don’t worry, because the film does, too. Other checklist items include a silly scene with an animal (alligator, check!), a few celebrity cameos for no logical or narrative reason at all (a sports star and a pop star, check!), and a song-and-dance number that can be revisited during the credits (“Islands in the Stream,” check!).
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You’re Cordially Invited is available to stream on Prime on Thursday, January 30th.
