You’re Cordially Invited (2025) Review: It’s Reese Witherspoon vs Will Ferrell in This Otherwise Predictable Rom-Com
You’re Cordially Invited marks the first time Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell are working together on a movie, even though they did collaborate more than 20 years ago on an SNL episode. Seeing them together in a rom-com sounds like a perfect fit with Witherspoon herself is no stranger to the genre.
She plays Margot, a top reality TV producer who is looking forward to managing her younger sister, Neve’s (Meredith Hagner) wedding. Margot is a take-charge single, career woman who has successfully planned 17 seasons of Altar Wars. So, she figures planning her sister’s wedding is a cakewalk. Everything is perfect at first: she manages to book the venue for a weekend on a tiny island resort at the Palmetto and has everything under control. Except for one problem that she didn’t anticipate when she found out the place was being double-booked.
The manager in charge, Leslie (Jack McBrayer) may have the date and the name Neve Buckley already written on the book. But apparently, there’s a man named Jim (Will Ferrell), a single dad who’s in charge of organising her only daughter, Jenni’s (Geraldine Viswanathan) wedding at the same venue since he and his late wife used to marry there. The person who picks up the call at the time happens to be the owner and a friend of the family played by Martha B. Knighton and as it turns out, he has booked the venue first. How does the double-booking mistake happen in the first place, well, you have to see it for yourself.
Long story short, neither Margot nor Jim are happy about this and they insist on sticking to the same venue on the same date. They immediately don’t see things eye to eye as they call each other out and it’s fun seeing the two bickering and spewing profanities like it’s a war of words. But after a while, Margot is willing to compromise and allows to split the venue with Jim in half. They both agree but as far as a rom-com like this tends to go, you know nothing is going to go smoothly as planned.
And this is where the hilarity kicks into high gear with Jim intentionally sabotaging Margot’s wedding plan, beginning with the actual day by the dock overlooking the lake during the sunset. Ferrell’s familiar man-child and mean-spirited schtick are on full display here as his character will do anything to make sure Margot’s wedding plan turns into a disaster.
But Margot isn’t going to just sit around and do nothing. She, too, has a plan to teach him a lesson. The ongoing comedy hijinks have a few funny moments, even though some scenes tend to be annoyingly juvenile or try too hard to score some laughter.
Nicholas Stoller, who also wrote the screenplay, sticks to the been there, done that type of rom-com formula. The kind of two people of opposite sex who hate each other’s guts like they are sworn enemies, only to end up — well — you know the rest, especially if you watch enough rom-com. The story may have been clichéd and it does drag in some parts with the movie’s 109-minute length overstaying its welcome with drawn-out melodramatic moments.
Still, having Witherspoon and Ferrell onboard does help to prevent this otherwise formulaic rom-com from sinking to the bottom of the lake. Their love-hate chemistry, coupled with the two’s individually lively performances are spot-on as they play off each other well. There’s an outrageous and yet, easily the funniest moment where the two have to deal with an alligator in the bedroom, which ends perfectly with a certain famous catchphrase. The rest of the cast delivers decent support, notably Geraldine Viswanathan as the estranged Jenni and Celia Watson as Margot’s captious mother.
You’re Cordially Invited is currently streaming on Prime Video.
