Overview
When two weddings are accidentally booked on the same day at the same venue, each bridal party is challenged with preserving their family's special moment while making the most of the unanticipated tight quarters. In a hilarious battle of determination and grit, the father of the bride and sister of the other bride chaotically go head-to-head as they stop at nothing to uphold an unforgettable celebration for their loved ones.
I’ve got a soft spot for Will Ferrell, even though his output is wildly uneven. For every Anchorman or Eurovision, there are an equal number of duds, such as Get Hard or Holmes & Watson. But I will keep returning to check out his new releases, even when the concept behind it holds little appeal. This is one such film where maybe, just maybe, I should have paid more attention to who wrote and directed it.
The concept of this comedy sees two weddings accidentally booked at an exclusive island resort on the same weekend. Will Ferrell is Jim, the over-attentive father of one of the brides to be, who having raised his daughter alone wants everything to be perfect for his angel. Reese Witherspoon is Margot, the high flying reality TV executive who has been planning a perfect wedding for her sister, as a kind of way to make up for the fact that she never spends time with family. Arriving on the island at the same time, after a brief argument over who should be there, the two wedding parties agree to divide the weekend up so they can both celebrate their glorious days. However, as you would expect, the clashing of cultures of the factions inevitably lead to a rivalry between Jim and Margot, that threatens to ruin the event for both parties. At this point you’d probably realise exactly how this will all end, and trust me when I say that you would be entirely correct, as everything that plays out feels as tired and forced, and entirely unoriginal, as that basic concept suggests.
There are a couple of moments within that raised a bit of a chuckle, and both involved Will Ferrell in perfect form as a father who has a unique friendship bond with his daughter, allowing him to play awkward moments with absolute innocence to comical effect. One such moment involves the pair dueting on a song that is entirely inappropriate, but the naivety of the pair works entirely. Moments such as this are what Ferrell does so well – he has a knack for playing charmingly innocent characters that you can’t help but love, and in here he delivers that throughout alongside Geraldine Viswanathan as his daughter, Jenni.
Unfortunately the rest of the film around that pair is a chore, and Witherspoon in particular is entirely unlikable here, making the latter act attempt to switch the character fall flat, with final moments of the film feeling unearned. There are at least three moments in this film where the idea runs out of steam, and it could have simply ended, but instead it wrings dry every last attempt to raise the comedy stakes to an almost agonisingly dull effect.
Like I said at the start, I maybe should have paid attention to the writer/director on this one as Nicholas Stoller working solo here should have rung bells – his previous writer/director credits of Get Him To The Greek and The Five Year Engagement alone are warning signs. Stoller can work well with other people’s ideas (Neighbours, Forgetting Sarah Marshall), but left to his own devices, he just keeps trying to up the ante scene after scene to detrimental effect to the end result.
You’re Cordially Invited is maybe a film you should RSVP with a firm, “No!”