“You’re Cordially Invited” Review: Is it dead?

Quick Summary: Two weddings, one venue, shenanigans ensue.

This portion of the review will contain spoilers.

Starting with the main characters – Margot (Reese Witherspoon) is funny and likeable, reminding me a bit of Claire Dunphy from Modern Family. She’s high strung, has a troubled relationship with her family (but loves her sister to death), and is also absolutely losing it for most of the movie. Her work as a TV producer is only touched on briefly but it was one of the more interesting aspects of the film. Almost had me searching up if “Is it dead” was a real show (it’s not). She’s got a lot of good moments, but the scene where she says she never feels lonelier than when she’s with her family is one of my favorites and really well done. 

All the scenes with Margot’s family stood out, especially when they come together, supporting Neve, for the chaos monkey sequence. Important to note that their actions primarily affect just Jim (destroying the cake he made) while Jim ruins Neve’s wedding (nearly sinking her entire family after they defended him to Margot) 🙄

Speaking of Jim (Will Ferrell), his character is incredibly frustrating – all the humor in his scenes fall flat to me and he comes out looking needlessly cruel, manipulative, and whiny. From the sheer audacity of booking the venue via phone call with no follow ups about payment or site visits, for a wedding he is apparently very invested in, to his over-the-top reaction to a petty comment about his daughter (immediately ruining another couple’s wedding after they graciously let his party stay, by the way, in a venue THEY paid for). Simply unhinged, and while I know both parties’ actions are played up for the comedy of it all, I can’t help but feel like he was disproportionately worse and was forgiven way too easily…..

The movie’s division into ‘acts’ was a nice touch and helped add structure. The soundtrack, featuring instrumentals from A Little Night Music, lends it a cool and almost eerie vibe. I honestly thought the secret plot twist would be an alligator attack à la Jaws, forcing the families to unite. The setting (a secluded inn on a small island), the color palette, and the music all indicated that was the case, but I may have been reading into it. Although, to be fair, there was an alligator attack (kind of).

My favorite scene in this movie and the only one that made me laugh out loud was the TikTok video Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Oliver (Stony Blyden) announced their annulment with. Jenni had her moments, but most scenes involving her, Jim, her bridesmaids, and Oliver ranged from unfunny to downright painful. That said, I really liked Geraldine’s performance – special shoutout to her crazy dance + immediate meltdown when she thinks Oliver cheated on her.

(Speaking of painful, props to Jenni’s makeup artist! The scene where Margot gets a look at her black eye is hilarious, and their bonding afterward is sweet and fleshes out both their characters.)

I enjoyed the last act primarily for it’s character development – Jenni’s lines about how she doesn’t have her “thing” hit hard for me as someone also struggling to find mine, and I’m glad she has a happy ending with Oliver despite ultimately deciding not to get married right away. Dixon putting his foot down & Margot clearing the air with her family was also super satisfying, and I loved seeing everyone visit her studio.

Finally, a lot of my favorite goodreads book reviews use GIFs liberally so here’s a choice selection of gifs to describe my thoughts on Jim & Margot’s 180° turn, totally random romance.

Oh, and one other thing—Nick Jonas! I completely forgot he was in this movie. I haven’t seen him in anything since Scream Queens, but he was funny during his brief screen time.

Thanks for reading!