‘The Invite’ has clear echoes of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ and ‘Carnage’, unfolding almost entirely within a San Francisco apartment where two couples come together for an increasingly awkward dinner party. What begins as an evening of polite conversation gradually gives way to discussions of sex, fidelity and swinging, with the possibility of transgression hanging over every interaction. Yet this is not simply a film about infidelity. Instead, it asks whether the temptation to cross boundaries might paradoxically become the catalyst for emotional honesty.

At the heart of the story are Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde as a married couple who have not been physically intimate for over a year. The arrival of their unconventional neighbours begins to expose the cracks in their relationship, but it also offers the possibility of renewal. In that respect, the film resembles the classic Western or even ‘Mary Poppins’, where an outsider arrives to restore a family or community that has quietly lost its way.

There are also shades of Woody Allen, particularly films such as ‘Another Woman’, in which overheard conversations and the lives of neighbours become catalysts for self-discovery. Here, Wilde’s character is quietly intrigued by the fact that the neighbour upstairs, played by Edward Norton, may have seen her naked through the window, while Rogen becomes increasingly unsettled not only by the loud lovemaking taking place upstairs but also by the possibility that his wife may have enjoyed being watched. Meanwhile, he himself cannot help noticing Penélope Cruz, creating an intriguing web of attraction, jealousy and insecurity.

The film toys with these tensions beautifully. Rogen repeatedly resolves to confront his neighbours about the noise, only to lose his nerve when the opportunity arises. It becomes less about the neighbours themselves than about everything their presence reveals concerning his own marriage and sense of self.

At times the film feels unmistakably theatrical, almost as though it were unfolding on a stage rather than in a real apartment. Yet that intimacy also proves to be one of its strengths. The screenplay is less interested in plot than in watching two people confront the uncomfortable reality that they are no longer the people they imagined they would become when they first fell in love. If a relationship reaches that point, should it be preserved at all costs, or is change inevitable?

There are unmistakable echoes too of ‘Indecent Proposal’ in the way the film explores whether a single night of transgression would destroy a marriage or, paradoxically, save it. As Penélope Cruz’s character suggests, some relationships have to die before they can be reborn in a new form. ‘The Invite’ never offers easy answers, but it does present an intelligent and surprisingly nuanced exploration of intimacy, desire and the ways in which long-term relationships evolve. What begins as an uncomfortable dinner party gradually becomes a thoughtful meditation on whether love is sustained by certainty or by the willingness to embrace change.