Arizona Tribune - Swinging to win: 'The Invite' delivers comedy gold at Sundance

Olivia Wilde's blisteringly funny "The Invite" explores what happens when a husband and wife who have long since tired of each other find themselves sitting down with a couple very much in the throes of passion.

The film plunges Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Wilde) and Pina and Hawk (Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton) into a pressure cooker of awkward small talk, simmering anger, and sexual tension -- with comedic and relatable results.

"Anyone who's ever been in a relationship of any kind, I think will recognize some of these themes," Wilde told AFP at the Sundance Film Festival, where the movie had its premiere Saturday.

"We made this as a playful piece to allow people to laugh and get in touch with their feelings, maybe a little bit."

Joe, whose band had a minor hit two decades earlier, is now a ball of resentment over his life as a teacher in a second-rate music school. He's a curmudgeon whose back aches and who no longer touches the piano that once gave him so much joy.

Angela has an arts school degree but never did anything with it, directing her energy into decorating the San Francisco apartment they inherited from Joe's parents, and listening with envy to the earth-shaking orgasms her upstairs neighbor has.

When Pina and Hawk arrive for dinner, Angela is desperate to get along and determined to stop Joe from complaining to them about what he calls those "animal" sex noises.

But it's Pina and Hawk who broach the subject, on their way to offering what turns out to be the real invite of the film.

- Improvisation -

The blistering script by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones ("Celeste and Jesse Forever") is the framework on which an A-list cast wantonly improvises, delivering a rapid fire of provocative lines.

"We had this rehearsal period where the six of us sat in a soundstage and we just dug into it," said Wilde.

"Several of the greatest moments in the movie are written by the cast."

Then when it came to filming, the performers let rip, which made the editing process very tricky, she said.

"There was such an embarrassment of riches," Wilde told the audience. "I had to lose this gold every day."

Rogan, who told AFP he is "a big fan of Olivia's," said when he first signed on to do the movie, Wilde was only set to direct -- something he and Norton were adamant was not right.

"Me and Edward were texting each other. We're just, like, 'How... do we talk her into being in the movie?'" he told the audience.

"She kept sending us names of other people. I was, like, 'Why are you doing this? There's an obvious person who should do this.'

"Then once she decided to cast herself in this film... it really took off."

Norton said Wilde's third directorial project, after "Booksmart" and "Don't Worry Darling," had been a masterclass in keeping plates spinning.

"Seth and I both have directed films that we've been acting in as well," he told the audience.

"Inevitably, you come to moments where you say, 'This was a terrible decision.'"

But that never seemed to happen with "The Invite."

"It's hard for me to overstate the grace and wisdom with which Olivia gave that performance and directed us," he said.

The Sundance Film Festival runs until February 1.

A.O.Scott--AT