I don’t know if the romantic comedy is the oldest genre in human civilization, but it’s got to be the most durable. Reinvented over and over, it’s capable of producing a masterpiece that is also a blast, tugging at hearts and warming them, too. The shape a rom-com takes can reveal a lot about a culture; what we think about power, hierarchies, love and individual agency is all wrapped up in the details we infuse into that resilient narrative arc.
But the main evidence of durability to me is this: When I am in the mood for a rom-com, any one, even a flimsy, janky one, will do. Yeah, I roll my eyes and squinch my face, but it’s still somehow satisfying. Had you seen me watching “You’re Cordially Invited,” you’d know what I mean.
It’s clear that this film was made expressly for people of about my age, the cohort who made box office hits of the writer-director Nicholas Stoller’s previous movies — “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” “Get Him to the Greek,” the “Neighbors” films — during roughly the years of the Obama administration. They’re comedies in the tradition of Judd Apatow, raunchy but kind of sweet, and these in particular take a few memorable surrealist swerves. (Stoller’s most recent film, the 2022 rom-com “Bros,” did not fare as well.) What’s more, its stars are elder millennial catnip: Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon.
Ferrell plays Jim, a single dad in Atlanta whose daughter, Jenni (the always-hilarious Geraldine Viswanathan), announces she’s getting married to her college sweetheart Oliver (Stony Blyden). A widower since Jenni was a little girl, Jim is a “girl dad” the way some men are “wife guys”: His life revolves around Jenni, and they’re the best of friends. She is all he has, and once he adjusts to the idea of her getting married, he starts to get excited about the wedding. What if they got married at the same inn on the same tiny island where he and her mother tied the knot? Maybe on June 1?
Meanwhile, across the country, the TV producer Margot (Witherspoon) discovers to her delight that her little sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), is engaged to her beloved Dixon (Jimmy Tatro). Margot isn’t on great terms with the rest of the family — their other two siblings (Rory Scovel and Leanne Morgan) and their mother (Celia Weston), all of whom are genteel Southerners — but she’s determined to plan the wedding anyhow. Wouldn’t it be great if they could have it on the tiny island where Margot and Neve spent summers with their grandmother? Maybe on June 1?
And thus the gears of the rom-com are set in motion, with Jim and Margot fated to meet-cute. Of course we know what will occur; the fun is seeing how it occurs, in this case with a combination of comedy of errors and comedy of manners. Along the way, drunk speeches are delivered, profanities are hurled, dirty jokes are told, lessons are learned — about family togetherness, about being a control freak, about not judging people without knowing them — and at least one alligator is wrestled. (There’s the surrealist swerve.) Naturally, love is also in the air.
All good, when the formula is the point. But there is something off about “You’re Cordially Invited,” some sense that the whole thing never clicks into place. There are sections (particularly in a sequence taking place at a wedding rehearsal) that feel as if a scene or two were lifted out. Continuity does not feel completely settled — how did that guy get to that room? Why is it sunny out now? What is this side character’s deal?
Perhaps most disappointingly, while Witherspoon has her tightly wound but good-hearted big sister thing down perfectly, it doesn’t seem as if Ferrell’s full comedic genius makes it onto the screen. It’s not the fault of his character; the sweet but somewhat bizarre guy fits him well. But there are moments when you can see his impish flair for improvisation shine through, and these moments highlight how little time he gets to let loose — or, at least, how little of it made it into the final cut.
This being a rom-com, the chuckle-worthy moments and easygoing narrative arc are almost enough to work with. But for those of us in its target generation — we who grew up watching some of the most beloved romantic comedies of the 1990s, both on TV and movies — it’s a disappointment, or maybe a reminder of what made those movies work. After all, a rom-com is a dance. It’s a performance with a bit of push and pull between partners, tap-dancing back and forth till they finally fall into one another’s arms. When the rhythm is off, you’re more distracted by the missteps than enthralled by the show.
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