Review You're Cordially Invited' to skip Will Ferrell, Reese Witherspoon's wedding party
There are certain things about “You’re Cordially Invited” that seem like they could be fun if you squint really hard. Reese Witherspoon banging her chest like King Kong while shouting expletives and warning she’s going “chaos monkey,” for example. Or Will Ferrell wrestling the fakest alligator you’ve ever seen.
It’s best to just be wide-eyed about this unfortunate rom-com situation: There’s not really much fun at all to be had. Written and directed by Nicholas Stoller – who’s far from the wry highs of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and “Neighbors” here –
“You’re Cordially Invited” (★½ out of four; rated R; streaming now on Prime Video) is like the worst wedding you’ve ever gone to. It’s a bizarrely off-kilter affair that’s forcibly heartfelt and sentimental in one scene and overly mean-spirited in the next, and not even a few choice moments and some enjoyable surrounding weirdos can help two A-listers in way over their heads.
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Jim (Ferrell) is the ultimate girl dad, a master of baking and cleaning who raised his daughter Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan) solo after his wife died. She comes for a visit with her boyfriend Oliver (Stony Blyden) with a surprise engagement announcement. And while thrown for a loop, Jim pretty much lives for Jenni, so he makes a date for them to get married at the same island inn wedding venue he did.
Margot (Witherspoon) is a hotshot reality TV producer who’s estranged from her eccentric Southern family except for her little sister Neve (Meredith Hagner). Margot pretty much lives for Neve – even ignoring a business meeting with Peyton Manning when she gets the news that Neve is engaged to her Chippendale boyfriend Dixon (Jimmy Tatro) and also pregnant. Margot makes a date for them to get married on the same island where she hung out with her grandma as a child that ‒ what do you know ‒ happens to have an in-demand wedding venue.
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