On January 30, the comedy film «You’re Cordially Invited» was released on Prime Video, starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon. In the review below, we tell you how well they do it.
Genre comedy
Director Nicholas Stoller
Starring Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon, Geraldine Viswanathan, Meredith Gagner, Celia Weston, Kayla Monterosso Mejia, Liane Morgan, Jimmy Tatro, Jack McBrayer, Lauren Gault, Stony Blyden
Premiere Prime Video
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb
The most important thing in Jim’s life is his daughter Jenny. The man is clearly not happy that she has agreed to marry her boyfriend Oliver, but he is forced to obey this decision. To ensure that Jenny has the best wedding ever, Jim books a small hotel located in a picturesque spot on the shore of the lake where he once got married.
Reality TV producer Margot doesn’t get along well with her family, but that doesn’t apply to her younger sister Niamh. The latter has just gotten engaged, and when Margot learns of the good news, she immediately dials the number of a small hotel located in a picturesque spot on the shore of a lake. Due to an unfortunate mistake, both celebrations are booked on the same date, so one can only imagine Jim and Margot’s surprise when they realize that the best day of their closest people’s lives is at risk of being ruined.
And it is triply surprising that there is a terrible lack of hilarious antagonism here, given the fact that Stoller already has experience of filming a strong comedic conflict in «Neighbors» (2014). There, if you recall, a young married couple with a newborn baby in their arms, who literally dreamed of valuable moments of peace, were opposed to crazy rowdy students with their endless noisy parties.
It may not have been the most outstanding example of the genre, but at least there were enough reasons to laugh. In the case of «You’re Cordially Invited», there is no such thing — the film is more likely to irritate with its humorous helplessness than to actually bring a smile to your face.
Almost everything is bad here, from the terrible behavior of one of the bridesmaids to the nightmarishly drawn CGI alligator. From the crude, clumsy sentimentality to the ridiculous and uninteresting storylines, such as the arch between Witherspoon’s character and her mother. From clumsy jokes that hint at incest or just pass by — to an irritating soundtrack that cuts your ears. To hell with Ferrell — you can expect a cringe from him anytime. But you wouldn’t expect such a thing from Reese Witherspoon, whose filmography looks much more solid.
Almost the entire screen space is taken up by boring, unfunny dialogues, so while watching, you often think — «and where is the laugh? Even the appearance of the aforementioned alligator in the frame does not change the situation for the better. Stoller makes some lazy attempts to ridicule social trends such as the addiction of modern youth to TikTok, or the tendency to accuse everyone they meet using buzzwords like «gaslighting», without any understanding of its meaning. However, it still doesn’t get any better.
In today’s gentle, tolerant era, the comedy genre seems to have no chance of showing itself on the harder, more hooligan side, as it did in the 2000s, so it’s no wonder that it rarely shows signs of life. You have to be very careful with jokes today.
The creators of «You’re Cordially Invited» seem to be trying to pretend to be brave, not afraid to slap at certain trends, sweetening the story with sentimentality. But they do it so clumsily that you can’t call watching this movie anything but a waste of time.