Nicholas Stoller is  a director known for some pretty amazing comedies such as Neighbors, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek. He has a knack for turning everyday normal situations into pretty funny stories His latest film You’re Cordially Invited is much the same. This type of comedy is usually pretty funny and funny is what I’m looking for right now. In fact I laughed quite a bit at the comedy that ensued during these movies. I’m sure many others will laugh out loud as I did while watching it. It’s what we all need right now in this world of ours.

Will Farrell plays a father whose daughter has just announced she’s getting married to her longtime boyfriend. He is a bit taken aback, but he decides to book the island resort he and her mother got married at, many years before. While this is going on a Hollywood reality show producer played by Reese Witherspoon gets a call from her sister informing her that she’s getting married to a Chippendales dancer that she loves, but her family isn’t that fond of him though. She also books the same resort on the same first weekend in June as the previous father of the bride, , As you might surmise this ends up causing a bunch of problems once both groups land at the island and try to confirm their reservations. The two people who thought they reserved the resort end up at odds with each other, As you’d imagine the zany comedy ensues. 

This type of family comedy has been done many times before, there are many contrivances that cause many of the issues between the two groups to occur. Add in the fact that the two head planners have their own problems with each other and difficulties with their families. This is the reason a lot of the craziness happens. Stoller is a professional at these types of comedies. I’ve seen many of them myself and more often than not they end up making me laugh just like this one did,

This film has a huge cast of characters. The daughter of Farrell’s character bride A if you will is played by young actress Geraldine Viswanathan, not a stranger to zany family comedies. She was in Blockers a few years back. She’s once again fine here, but her father played by Farrell steals the spotlight from her, Meredith Hagner, bride B if you will, is also okay opposite her Oscar winning compatriot  Witherspoon. They have good sister chemistry together, but the actress who played their mother, Celia Weston, had me in stitches with her straightforward demeanor. The man that made me laugh the most was the hotel resort manager played by Jack McBrayer. It matter which group  he was with, he had one hilarious line after the other.  I constantly laughed at him throughout the movie. This cast overall were very funny though,

A few of the moments that were without a doubt the most funny in the film were one involving an Alligator and Farrell, a dock breaking with a pastor, who is a cameo so I won’t mention who he is, singing With Arms Wide Open from Creed, and a destroyed cake. These were all hilariously done by Stoller, My favorite scene of the movie was after the film ended. The post credits sequence was fantastic, I enjoyed that quite a bit, I didn’t like everything in this movie though. An unrealistic romance is shoehorned into the story and I thought it was very  unnecessary. This family feud, if you will, was enough to make me enjoy this film quite a bit. There was no need for this romance. 

The moment to me that was the most emotional was when Farrell’s character and Viswanathan’s sang ‘Isn’t She Lovely; by Stevie Wonder. This was a tender moment and one that brought the whole relationship between these two characters full circle. Others may think its a creepy scene and so forth, but I thought it was very powerful on genuine paternal level, in other hands this could have come across as comedic or less then authentic, but these two actors made it their own and brought it home for me, I’m sure many fathers and daughters will have a similar emotional tie to this scene and song from the legend Stevie Wonder. What a moment.

You’re Cordially Invited is the kind of film I needed right now. The world is going to hell in a handbasket and I needed to laugh as hard as I possibly could. This movie made me do that\. Sure its contrived and we’ve probably scene this type of thing done many times before, but Farrell, and the rest of the cast, McBrayer included, give it their all trying to be funny which is what their paid for and what people to to the theater for, even though this is on Prime Video January 31st. Stoller does what he does best and takes normal situations and makes them hilarious and I applaud him for that. Is this going to be the best movie of the year? No. Was it worth my time once to see it and laugh out loud? Yes it was!

You’re Cordially Invited Streams on Prime Video January 31st

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen