You’re Cordially Invited is a Hollywood romantic comedy released on January 30, 2025. Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, You’re Cordially Invited has a runtime of 109 minutes and is currently streaming on Prime Video.
The movie highlights the chaotic events that result from a double wedding booking in the same island inn. It features Hollywood Legends Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, both of whom co-produced the film.
Premise of You’re Cordially Invited
The film starts off with Jim, who appears to be a single father preparing for his daughter, Jenni’s return from college. We follow him through a montage of cooking, cleaning, and baking.
When Jenni does arrive, she surprises him by bringing her boyfriend Oliver, and announcing to Jim that they are now engaged. Jim is simultaneously shocked and dismayed, expressing concerns about how young they are and his dread at the fact that she might move away from Atlanta, from him. But both Jenni and Oliver explain that they will remain close.
“We could end up living down the street, but instead, you make it all about you, like always.”
Jenni then tells Jim that she’d like to have the wedding in the same private island inn where he and her currently deceased mother had their own wedding; Palmetto Island Inn. Following through, he calls the owner, an elderly woman named Scarlett, to book the venue. Scarlett explains that they can only have one wedding per weekend due to how small the island is. So Jim then chooses a suitable date for a summer wedding the following year. When Scarlett attempts to write it down in their reservations book, she unfortunately experiences a heart attack and dies.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Margot is a top reality TV producer whose sister, Neve, visits with her partner Dixon. Margot discovers that Neve and Dixon are engaged, and they celebrate. She decides to plan the wedding herself, including booking a venue that is special to them as it holds happy childhood memories with their grandmother. This also happens to be…Palmetto Island Inn.
Margot calls the Inn and is attended to by Leslie, Scarlett’s son and the new caretaker after her passing. She coincidentally books the same weekend as Jim but Leslie, unaware of his mother’s attempt to book it for Jim, ends up booking it for Margot without any issues.
The wedding weekend arrives and Jim, Jenni, Margot and Neve all head to Palmetto. We meet Jenni’s friends, who are all young adults as well, displaying enthusiasm and excitement for her, albeit a little too energetic for Jim.
We also meet Margot and Neve’s family, who are a little more conservative and don’t have a very good relationship with the sisters and Dixon. Neve also reveals to Margot that she is pregnant and would like to keep it a secret for now.
At this point, both parties are unaware of each other and the double booking. That changes when Jim and Margot both walk in at the same time to check their respective parties into the wedding suite. This results in a chaotic argument between the two, but in the end, the suite ends up going to Margot as she had already made a down payment. Jim begrudgingly concedes, making sure to confront the wedding planner about not double-checking to see that the venue was paid for.
Stop here and jump to cast and performances if you do not want any spoilers.
That night, Margot and Neve express feeling guilty about essentially “kicking out” Jim and Jenni. This is further emphasized when Margot has a reconciliation conversation with Jim where he reveals that Jenni wanted the place because he and her late mother got married there. Margot then offers to split the booking with Jim, and despite the multiple warnings from Leslie, they draw up a schedule. It goes as follows:
Rehearsal Dinner: Jenni’s party takes outside; Neve’s party takes the farmhouse.
Wedding Ceremony: Jenni’s wedding takes the dock for the first half of sunset and Neve’s wedding takes the second half.
“Is timing the sunset even a thing...?”
Wedding Reception: Jenni’s wedding takes the farmhouse, while Neve’s wedding happens outside.
This arrangement leads to joy and celebration from both parties that turns slightly melancholy as Margot argues with her mother and Jim pays homage to his late wife.
The next day, the rehearsal dinner, everything runs relatively smoothly for both wedding parties until it begins to rain, forcing Jenni’s party to take shelter in the farmhouse, cramming in and interrupting Neve’s event. Despite this and several other hiccups, it still ends up being a good night for both brides. Later, Jenni shares a secret conversation with Margot, where she confides some of her struggles and insecurities to her.
The next day, right before the wedding ceremonies, Jim accidentally overhears Margot and her family gossiping cruelly about him and Jenni. Hurt and mortified, he decides to retaliate by delaying and sabotaging Neve’s wedding.
This leads to a hilariously chaotic rollercoaster of events, with Jim and Margot constantly attempting to get back at each other by out-sabotaging each other. This only served to backfire as they hurt their loved ones in the process.
On interval, they also deal with serious issues such as Jim’s excessive over-protection and dependency on Jenni, and Margot’s incredibly sour relationship with her mother and the rest of their family, and then finally ending with Jim and Margot beginning a romantic relationship.
Cast and Performances
You’re Cordially Invited features a great blend of old and new Hollywood faces, including the legendary Will Ferrell as Jim and the equally iconic Reese Witherspoon as Margot. Other talented cast members include:
- Geraldine Viswanathan as Jenni
- Meredith Hagner as Neve
- Stony Blyden as Oliver
- Jimmy Tatro as Dixon
- Jack McBrayer as Leslie
We were even blessed with a short cameo performance by Nick Jonas as Pastor Luther.
Regarding their performances, 10/10 no notes. Each actor brought the perfect level of unhinged chaos to their character, which is honestly rather refreshing to see because comedy is a slippery slope where an actor’s performance can easily become very awkward, very quickly.
Kudos to Reese for being able to capture the cutthroat no-nonsense dragon lady that Margot is supposed to be and Will did an incredible job of portraying the overly dependent helicopter parent that would kill and die for his daughter.
I did have an issue with their characters falling in love though. I don’t know, I just feel like they lacked the chemistry to make an on-screen romantic relationship work, especially given the obvious 9-year age gap between them. It would’ve made more sense for them to end up as incredibly close friends.
What I liked and Dislikes about the film
I’m always going to be a huge fan of comedy, so as long as it was handled properly, there will be little for me to dislike about it. I loved how it wasn’t pure goofiness all the way through, and while I can’t say the movie managed to achieve a perfect balance between seriousness and goofiness, the movie still had substance and didn’t end up coming off as an extended Saturday Night Live skit.
That being said, however, there were some parts of the movie that came off as over-the-top, even for them. There was that one weird encounter with a crocodile that contributed absolutely nothing to the plot, and not to mention Jenni’s friends and their erratic behavior (one day, we will have a modern movie that doesn’t overly exaggerate Gen Z culture and trends as a bad running joke. I wait patiently.). Then that scene where Margot ‘realizes’ that Jim likes her will always draw a groan out of me.
Final Thoughts on You’re Cordially Invited
This was a fun movie. I laughed a lot and experienced a strange bout of nostalgia. In a world where action, plot twists and unconventional romance reign true, it’s nice to have good old fashioned chaos comedy, where dialogue is fun but events are better.
I rate You’re Cordially Invited: 4 out of 5.
Be the first to comment