The Invitation | Is There Still Time to Refuse?

What would you do if a family tree website led you to a wealthy family living in another country? Would you go and meet them or ignore them?

This is the dilemma faced by Nathalie Emmanuel (Missandel in ‘Game of Thrones’) in the film The Invitation. Evie is a freelance artist whose dream is to make a living selling her art.

At one of the events she is working at, she gains access to a DNA test and, while taking the test, meets a British cousin named Oliver (Hugh Skinner) who, by pure coincidence, is in town and, on their first date, invites her to go to a wedding at the family mansion.

But is it worth watching?

You know that saying that “when the alms are too much, the saint gets suspicious”? That’s exactly the thought we have while watching this movie.

The main character’s best friend agrees with us, and she advises the girl to take a picture of the license plate of the car that took her to the mansion. However, an accident occurs, hindering her mission.

And it’s at this moment that we meet our second central character.

Played by Thomas Doherty, the character De Ville exudes a Christian Grey vibe mixed with a Lord from a series set in the 19th century. He captivates with his smile and luxurious gifts, as well as a loving chat about the future with our protagonist.

Our host is full of clichés: charming, a rich man who cares about his employees and is attentive to his guests, coveted by the most beautiful women in town, interested only in the stranger.

The script by Blair Butler (2019’s Instant Death) ends up falling into the same old mold as horror films released recently: they promise a lot, but deliver only banal, predictable “scares” that don’t give anything away to the plot.

To prevent spoilers, I’ll hold back when talking about the third act.

If the beginning of the film is slow, here we have a plot twist that fails to turn the plot into something surprising.

We also have a fight sequence that makes us laugh a little and an ending that makes the film a trashy one, the kind that makes you think “Wow, I can’t believe I wasted my time watching this movie”.

In Conclusion

The Invitation is not available on any streaming platform in Brazil. Taking this into account, and the effort required to download the film and the low quality of the story itself, I believe it is not worth it.

If anything, you can put it on while you use your cell phone and don’t pay attention to it.