You're Cordially Invited-an R-rated comedy from veteran writer/director Nicholas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Bros) that debuted on Prime Video last Thursday-has a uniquely depressing quality to it that's akin to watching a failed attempt at building a superteam in professional sports. There's an insane amount of proven talent here from the top of the call sheet (Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon) all the way down to the bottom of its deep roster of supporting players (Geraldine Viswanathan, Meredith Hagner, Jimmy Tatro, Celia Weston, Rory Scovel, Jack McBrayer) working with a premise that's a potential situational comedy gold mine (a quaint hotel in Palmetto Island, Georgia accidentally books two weddings for the same weekend-causing squabbling and chaos galore among the wedding parties as they struggle to share the venue's limited space), the finished product is just never able to get off the ground. Most of the gags either fall flat or are repeated to the point where their comedy value wastes away entirely, the final act is a bizarre, completely unexpected tonal mishmash that is neither sweet, romantic or emotional and outside of a brief moment here and there, the entire cast kind of just flails around as they struggle to elevate the aggressively mediocre material Stoller handed to them. It's a rough sight to see a project with so many funny people in it struggle to get laughs-particularly in an era where comedies have become so scarce, but that's just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.
The good news for team You're Cordially Invited is that unlike the inevitable downer ending of a pro athlete's career, they'll have an opportunity to prove that time hasn't dulled their gifts. They just need to seek out and/or craft better material before they commit to making another comedy that's as average as this and I have faith in all of their abilities to do so. Now, don't make me look like a buffoon for believing that you're all above being involved in such a blah movie, damn it!
Grade: C
No comments:
Post a Comment