There are plenty of movies about the rush of falling in love but far fewer focus on where couples can find themselves after years of living together with all that time to allow your partner’s once adorable quirks to grow into annoyances, for a lack of communication to allow potentially solvable dilemmas to bloom into arguments, or for one’s own insecurities to take over their entire personality. It’s not that movies never visit this period in the life of a romance, but it’s challenging to do so in a way that doesn’t feel punishing to the audience and so these types of films are far rarer than rom coms (themselves a somewhat endangered genre these days). So it’s nice to see director Olivia Wilde and screenwriters Rashida Jones and Will McCormack (adapting from Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish film Sentimental) tackle exactly that and even better that they’ve done it so brilliantly.

Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) are struggling in their marriage. While they do appear to still have at least some affection towards each other, it’s unclear if they are remaining together for any reason other than their daughter and a sense of familiarity. Coming home from his job teaching at a middling music school, Joe discovers that Angela has invited their upstairs neighbors over for dinner. To say he’s nonplussed by the idea is an understatement, but Angela finds them intriguing and wants to make new friends and so pushes forward with the preparations despite his protestations.

When Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) knock on the door Joe and Angela’s interactions have escalated into a full-blown argument, but as they see in their guests they immediately switch on the facade of a happy couple (Angela more so than Joe) and set about trying to have an enjoyable evening. Needless to say, little goes right as they soldier on through the evening before discovering that their company has an ulterior motive for the visit, one that will test their own personal boundaries while possibly laying bare everything that has gone wrong in their marriage.

Reading that description you could easily be tricked into thinking The Invite was a dour drama, but thankfully that couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, there is a lot of truth flowing through the currents of the very awkward dinner party portrayed here, there are a few well-earned emotional moments, and the play-like staging lends everything an air of sophistication, but above all else this movie is funny. Like laugh-out-loud while you cringe in second-hand embarrassment funny.

I haven’t seen the original film, nor the myriad remakes of it that have sprung out around the world, so I can’t say how much of the script Jones and McCormack lifted from it beyond the basic premise, but they deserve credit for crafting something so clever, insightful, and oddly relatable regardless. As does director Wilde, who gets some genuinely impressive performances from her cast (herself included), finely balancing the blend of comedy and interpersonal drama while keeping things moving briskly and executing some smart staging. That Rogen is funny is no revelation—and what I suspect are some adlibs he slipped in work well—but Cruz, Norton, and Wilde are less often thought of as such. A shame because they all show top-tier comic chops here, nailing the timing and expressions needed to make each line land just right and all able to switch to serious mode when called for.

A sex comedy for grown-ups that isn’t afraid to “go there” without ever becoming prurient, The Invite is a great time at the movies. Intelligent humor like this is vanishingly rare at the multiplex (and maybe even more uncommon on streaming), so it’s worth treasuring when it comes along. Filled with laughs, pathos, and depth, while anchored by award-worthy writing and performances, The Invite is even more of a treasure than most. ★★★★★

Rated R for sexual material, language throughout, and drug use.