Review of The Invitation (2016) by Farah S — 29 Dec 2017

Very predictable movie. Once you start watching any thriller, you know something exciting is bound to happen. When nothing exciting happened for first two-thirds of this movie, it was obvious that the usual drama was going to happen at the very end and there was nothing surprising about it.

It was so disappointing and such a waste of time, but greater annoyance at the extremely good ratings which compelled me to follow this move right to the very end. I am a little confused as to what was so 'surprising' about the movie plot that all the critics are talking about.

Also, could not relate to the characters. They were too polite and sophisticated to be good old friends, they were not warm or lovable or sincere. Like meeting your co-workers or something- cliche jokes, fun talk, polite disagreements but nothing which gets you emotionally invested enough.

Thirdly, it is always a fun surprise in movies to be on the protagonist's side who everyone else thinks is crazy and to find out in the end that he was justified all along. But we could never be on the protagonist's side in this movie.

We could never verify to our own selves that his gut instinct was right, given that the first hour proved it wrong over and over. I never figured why Will smashed the glass of wine. What compelled him to do so at that very moment.

Perhaps being able to actually see the reasons through this eyes would have helped.