If ever there were a season in need of some lighthearted escapism, this winter would surely be it. So audiences may well embrace Amazon’s wedding comedy, “You’re Cordially Invited” — streaming on Prime January 30th — as the equivalent of fast-food comfort. It’s familiar, it goes down easy, and you barely have to make an effort. But when it’s over, you’ll either instantly forget it or wonder why you’ve got such a sour taste in your mouth.
The most surprising thing about this by-the-numbers comedy, in fact, is that it comes to us from writer-director Nicholas Stoller. He updated Kermit & Co. so delightfully in “The Muppets,” tartly reconceived the revenge rom-com with “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” and scored on the small screen with both “Platonic” and the updated “Goosebumps.”
So it’s tempting to assume that Stoller’s participation here is akin to that of a franchise owner: he set up shop, but the bosses at the top had final say. Which is really the only explanation for a comedy with two–actually, make that three–stars so wildly mismatched, they might as well be in different movies entirely.
To be fair, each of their films has considerable potential. A broad comedy featuring Will Ferrell as Jim, the overly-devoted dad panicked about his only daughter’s wedding? Sure! A sharp rom-com with Reese Witherspoon as Margot, the type-A TV producer stage-managing her little sister’s big day? Why not! A quiet indie with character actress Celia Weston as the steely but vulnerable Southern matriarch who terrifies her own children?
Wait…what?
As it happens, Weston is phenomenal, and any cinephile would rightly watch the hell out of that movie. However, that movie should not also have a grown man wrestling in bed with a live alligator, or exotic dancers serving as reception entertainment.
But anyway. Here we are with these disparate ingredients—which also include Nick Jonas as a hot priest, Jack McBrayer as an overwhelmed venue planner, comics Rory Scovel and Leanne Morgan as Margot’s other siblings, and Peyton Manning wandering around aimlessly as himself—all tossed together in an algorithmic recipe some streaming execs appear to have decided would make the most money. And maybe it will, because Ferrell works hard enough to break a sweat in every scene, Witherspoon is as smoothly professional as an actor can be, and, well, audiences do love a wedding.
If it matters, and it barely does, the event that brings these people together is a nuptial mixup. Jim’s daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) is supposed to marry Oliver (Stony Blyden) at Georgia’s Palmetto Island on June 1st, and she arrives with her wild, post-collegiate crew ready to party. Margot’s sister Neve (Meredith Hagner) and her fiancé Dixon (Jimmy Tatro) are also planning to marry on June 1st, so their straightlaced clan shows up with pearls in place. But…the island only has room for one marriage per weekend.
Uh-oh!
Amazon could have a quick hit on its hands, purely because it’s a comedy with two beloved stars during a quiet period. That said, while Stoller’s script does boast a few solid laughs, everyone involved deserves and can do better. (Except Weston, who–bless her heart–gives us award-worthy work in a movie that sets brides on fire and asks us to sit through cast members endlessly mugging to Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers’ “Islands in the Stream” during the credits.)
It sometimes feels that we’re at the point where executives decide what we want, and assume it’s our job to accept it. This is no way to approach either art or entertainment, but nothing will change until we reject it. So when Prime proposes this one as your next watch, perhaps think twice before saying “I do.”
The post ‘You’re Cordially Invited’ Review: No Need to RSVP for Disappointing Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell Affair appeared first on TheWrap.