“You’re Cordially Invited” is a movie about terrible behavior before a wedding. In an intriguing riff on the premise, the brides are the ones on their best behavior.

When Jim (Will Ferrell) calls the venue where he and his late wife were married to schedule the wedding of his daughter, the desk agent confirms, but her pen runs out of ink, and she falls over dead before she can replace it.

So when Margot (Reese Witherspoon) calls to book the venue located on the property her grandmother used to live on for her sister’s wedding, the event is double booked.

A year later, when both wedding parties arrive on the same day, explosions ensue.

The screenplay tracks the goodwill between the parties cratering until it hits its nadir with Will Ferrell capturing an alligator, taking it back to the inn, and now that he’s hit rock bottom, deciding he shouldn’t actually release the gator into the other wedding reception. Phew! Character growth achieved, and crisis averted.

In terms of feel, quality, and laughs, I’d put this somewhere between “Bride Wars,” the clunker with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway also fighting over a wedding venue, and “The Proposal” the serviceable feel-good that places the relationship in a broader family dynamic.

The players here are all high quality. Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are professionals putting on a good show, and they have more chemistry then I would have guessed. Jimmy Tatro who plays one of the grooms, Keyla Monterroso Mejia who plays one of the bridesmaids/wedding planners, and Vinny Thomas, who plays Margot’s assistant, all bring energy and life to the script.

And it’s clear that it’s being helmed by a steady hand, Nicholas Stoller, who has built a career on raunchy middle-of-the-road comedies of decreasing quality. And I’d say, of his films, this one is really only better than “Storks” or maybe “Neighbors 2.” 

But the movie lacks any real zest or inspiration. It’s not unfunny, I just can’t imagine remembering any of the jokes in a few days. And while the film spends a lot of time trying to make fun of woke-scolds, the film also seems too scared of them for these jokes to ever really work.  

The bigger problem is that the entire film is drenched in profanity. It’s as though someone wrote a perfectly fine middle-of-the-road rom-com. The studio said it needed to be ten minutes longer, so they decided to add ten minutes of F words. 

They are pointless and degrading, and makes what is otherwise a fine if uninspiring film one that is decidedly worth avoiding. 

The film is also a bit of a window into how culture views marriage, and it’s not all inspiring. The film concludes that a couple who dated for several years through college, and is happy moving in together across the country, with stable jobs, are better off getting their marriage annulled because marriage is just such a big step. 

This film also continues the trend of promoting family reconciliation by processing psychological trauma, by blaming whatever generation is older than whoever wrote the movie. It’s long been a trope to blame the parents, but now we’re reconciling with the parents by blaming the grandparents. “Encanto” did it well, but the new variation of the trope is already starting to wear thin.

I think the only people who will truly love this film are those who buy in to the Witherspoon-Ferrell chemistry so much they are willing to watch it go anywhere. I wouldn’t watch this movie with children. 

One and a half out of five stars. “You’re Cordially Invited” releases on Amazon Prime on January 30, 2025.

The post “You’re Cordially Invited” – A Rom-Com That Swears It’s Funny appeared first on Public Square Magazine.