You’re Cordially Invited Review

You’re Cordially Invited Review 

Yesterday a new rom-com starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon dropped on Prime Video. I was able to check it out, is it any good? Or is it another generic streaming movie? Let’s get started! 

The Review

• I didn’t really know much about this movie. I didn’t watch a trailer for the movie, I was curious to check it out. It wasn’t a movie where I had a lot of expectations going into it. Basically the movie is about Will Ferrell whose daughter is getting married, but the venue accidentally gets doubled booked with Reese Witherspoon’s sister’s wedding. The two weddings have to learn how to share this weekend and make sure both weddings go smoothly. It’s a romantic comedy following Ferrell and Witherspoon as hijinks ensue and they keep on trying to sabotage the other wedding. I heard this premise and thought maybe this would be fun. They’re taking people who can be fun, it’s a fun premise for a romantic comedy. I watched the movie and I didn't think it was good at all. I’ve only seen five 2025 movies and this is my least favorite so far this year. I wouldn’t say this movie was dreadful, but it’s close to being it. 

• It’s one of those movies where I don’t know what Ferrell or Witherspoon saw in this movie. I watched an interview with Ferrell before watching this movie and he said he never did a sequel to Elf because he didn’t like the script. After seeing this movie, I don’t want to imagine just how bad that script was if he said yes to this movie. From beginning to end, this movie wasn’t funny, cringe worthy, and filled with unlikable characters. When you’re making a romantic comedy that’s not funny and you don’t like the characters, you know you did something bad. 

• There’s so many jokes in this movie that are just terrible. It’s throwing a lot of jokes at the screen, but very few of them stick. There’s not a lot of wit to them, they’re just jokes for the sake of having jokes. It’s like they tried to give all of the characters these quirks about them, but the quirks were not funny. Early on, they establish this very strange relationship between Will Ferrell and his daughter. She pretends to be mad, then he apologizes and they make up. It’s supposed to be this running joke throughout the entire movie, but the acting from the daughter is terrible in those moments. The first time you don’t know if she’s joking or if she’s being serious, even as they keep on playing the joke out, I still didn’t know if she was joking or being serious. Later on in the movie, they sing a song at the wedding about making tender love to each other. The fact that a father and daughter are karaoking this song at the wedding is just cringe worthy. It’s gross, it’s supposed to be played for laughs but it does not work. Reese Witherspoon’s sister’s husband is a stripper and there’s a scene with a proposal that involves the strippers and his friends in front of the family. It’s supposed to be played as a joke, but the fact that the new husband is strip dancing in front of his new family-in-laws is weird. There’s even a Nazi joke in this movie. Will Ferrell says that he remembers one of Witherspoon’s niece’s names because they have the same name as Hitler’s wife. How he even pictured the niece wearing a Nazi uniform. There’s another joke about LA and California always having fires. There are two jokes in this movie that are related to recent big news topics. In the movie, they’re in bad taste. I don’t get why they didn’t cut the jokes out.

• The other thing that struck me so weird about this movie is they wanted to have all of this social commentary in the movie. The social commentary doesn’t tie into the movie at all. It felt like the writer had all of these ideas about the real world that he wanted to tackle so he threw them in there, but there’s no wit to any of them. The bridesmaids are going Will Ferrell’s character a sexist because he referred to Witherspoon as a “lady” and they start lecturing him about being sexist. It’s not played as a joke, so it just feels weird. There’s jokes about the economy being bad and that’s why all of the bridesmaids don’t have jobs. That’s the extent of the joke, there’s nothing else beyond that. Probably the weirdest and most in-your face and some offense aspect about this movie is the dynamic between Witherspoon and her family. Witherspoon’s family is from the south and Witherspoon moved to LA to be a tv producer. There’s this scene in the movie where her family is acting like rednecks being so confused and clueless about the lifestyle of Witherspoon and LA. In the movie, it’s portrayed as the south is stupid and doesn’t understand California. It’s leaning into the stereotypes of people from the south being clueless, it’s offensive. And they use the stereotype as a way for Witherspoon’s character to have a character arc. Which is once again very gross and offensive with the way that it’s done. I don’t get why the writer felt the need to include all of this stuff that doesn’t make any sense, it’s filler jokes just to get another laugh out of you.

• The final thing about this movie that didn’t work for me at all. Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon are two of the most unlikable characters that I’ve ever seen in a movie. Both of them are trying to sabotage the other wedding which is just a terrible concept. I get that they were in an awkward situation of having to share a small island for a wedding. But they at least be able to act civil about the entire thing and appreciate each other’s space. Apparently that’s not in their resume of things that they can do. They keep on escalating everything and everything to the next level. What’s worse about it, is they don’t seem to care. They don’t feel sorry for what they did. Witherspoon’s family does an act out of revenge. They’re seeking revenge at somebody else’s wedding. That’s just stupid and idiotic. Witherspoon calls Ferrell’s daughter a wh*re and all of these terrible things and don’t feel bad about it. And then it all wraps up in a happy ending where you’re supposed to forget that the last 90 minutes happened. I don’t get how you’re supposed to find any of these characters likable. When you’re doing a charming romantic comedy, that makes it worse. 

• You get a movie that starts off with unlikable characters that’s layered on top with terrible jokes, bad commentary, a weak script. When you put it all together you get a movie that’s not fun to watch. If you were interested in this because you like the leads, don’t bother with this movie. It’s not good.