A friend of mine shared a post on Facebook recently about letting your ex back into your life. The post went on to state that it’s a terrible idea. All it does is drudge up bad memories and cause nothing but harm. When one goes searching for closure, they may instead find rekindled feelings and/or contentious disagreements. There’s a reason the person is your ex and, most times than not, it’s best to keep the past in the past.
My friend would have a field day with Will (Logan Marshall-Green), who accepts an invitation to a dinner party from his ex, Eden (Tammy Blanchard). We know from his spaced-out conversation with his current partner, Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), that this is a bad idea. She’s supportive, seeing this as an opportunity to move past a dark time in his life. A dark time that it is always hinted at, but never quite revealed until an opportune time.
“The Invitation” is the kind of thriller that lives and dies on red herrings. These can be cheap tools, but not in the hands of Karyn Kusama. She directs the red herrings in a way to reflect Will’s descent into grief. Keeping his past a secret is a common approach to building tension, but manipulated here to complement Will’s denial. The occasional flashback seeps in to clue the audience in all the while acting as a sort of PTSD for Will. Admittedly, this aspect of the approach faltered, if only because of how little it played into the film overall. Had it been excised in the editing room, the film would’ve flowed just the same, possibly even better as far as suspense goes.
Nevertheless, Kusama’s direction is clever enough to make the conventions feel plausible. In any other thriller, the one-note personalities that make up the rest of the invited friends would be a downfall. Here they make sense, as we only get to see one note of their personality as that’s how Will is currently viewing them. Thanks to expository dialogue, we learn that no one in the group has seen each other in over two years, not since Will & Eden went their separate ways. Due to Will’s hesitation to revisit the past, he’s only allowing the lighter aspects of each attendee’s personalities shine through. In reality, the script (credited to Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi) calls for an abundance of characters in order for the twist to be effective. The suspense being built from the mystique of the party’s true intention overwhelms the guests, stunting their development. In Kusama’s hands, however, this is a way of tapping into the paranoia of it all.
To some extent, this may have been deliberate on the screenwriters’ part as well. While they underwrite the friends, they purposely overwrite the new inclusions into the gang. David (Michiel Huisman), Eden’s new husband, is a bit too friendly. He’s too sincere and pushy in that polite way that’s just as irritating as an abrasive approach. He has a strange power over Eden that goes one step past affection. The same goes for Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch), a mutual friend who describes his startling past with an uneasy calmness. These new characters get a lot more development than others, most likely because a thriller such as this needs their outlandishness in order to drive home the tension. Yet, it makes complete sense that Will would be more intrigued in their eccentrics than to be enraptured by the loving embrace of his friends. David and Pruitt don’t represent his past and that scares him. He has yet to get over his past endeavors, while these two seem to be able to do so with ease.
To spoil the twist or even reveal some intricate details pertaining to the party would tarnish the tension. And this is a film that relies heavily on that tension. I can only imagine the script reading a little bland, the same way I imagined the “10 Cloverfield Lane” script reading (which it admittedly did). The suspense is of a more insidious variety. The events that unfold in the film aren’t chilling. The honesty game that is reminiscent of truth or dare and the odd video of a woman finding peace in her impending death that plays out more like an exorcism are more awkward than scary. It’s that awkwardness that makes it scary. You can’t shake the feeling that something’s not quite right here, even when the other characters aren’t too bothered by it. They find it strange, sure, but not threatening.
The only person to find anything threatening is Will. He is our avatar, the man whose point of view matches our own. His uncomfortableness spells danger, while the rest of the partygoers see it as nothing more than peculiar. The moments in which Will snaps under the pressure are incredibly awkward, with the audience questioning if his accusations are founded or if he’s losing his grip on his own sanity. We too question everything, making us question our very own sanity. Kusama doesn’t just feed into Will’s paranoia, but the viewer’s as well.
“The Invitation” is a tightly-knit thriller. It’s a slow burn, with Kusama getting a lot out of very little. The slow burn may be a turnoff for some, but for me it’s what made the film thrilling. The thrills come from the psychosis, not the actions. The twist isn’t the defining point, but the means to an end. The red herrings that are needed in order to steer the madness are intrinsically placed, with only a few coming across as too convenient. It all leads to a final shot that is diabolically clever!
Final Rating: B+