‘You’re Heartly Invited’ Review: Here’s the Bride’s

Ferrell plays Jim, a single father in Atlanta, whose daughter, Jenni (the always funny Geraldine Viswanathan), announces that she marries her college boyfriend Oliver (Stony Lead). A widower since Jenni was a little girl, Jim is a “girl’s father” that some men are “wife guys”: his life is about Jenni and they are best friends. She is all he has and when he first adapts to the idea that she marries, he begins to get excited about the wedding. What if they got married at the same inn on the same little island where he and her mother tied the knot? Maybe June 1st?

Meanwhile, television producer Margot (Witherspoon) all over the country discovers her joy that her little sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), is engaged to her beloved Dixon (Jimmy Tatro). Margot is not on great conditions with the rest of the family – their two other siblings (Rory Scovel and Leanne Morgan) and their mother (Celia Weston), all of whom are gentle south lenders – but she is determined to plan the wedding in any case . Wouldn’t it be nice if they could have it on the small island where Margot and Neve spent summers with their grandmother? Maybe June 1st?

And thus the gears for Rome-Com have started with Jim and Margot the fate to meet. Of course we know what will occur; The funny thing is to watch how It occurs in this case with a combination of comedy of mistakes and comedy of manners. Along the way, drunken speeches that are thrown are that muted jokes are told, lessons are taught – about the family’s togetherness, about being a control freak, not to judge people without knowing them – and at least one alligator fighting. (There is the surreal Swerve.) Of course, love is in the air as well.

All good when the formula is the point. But there is something about “You are heartily invited”, a certain opinion that it will never click into place. There are sections (especially in a sequence that takes place on a wedding sample) that feels like a scene or two were lifted out. Continuity doesn’t feel completely settled – how did that guy come to that room? Why is it sunny out now? What is the agreement of this side character?

Perhaps most disappointing, while witherspoon has her tightly wrapped, but kind -hearted big sister things down perfect, it doesn’t look like Ferrell’s full comic genius is doing it on screen. It’s not his character’s fault; The sweet but somewhat bisexual guy fits him well. But there are moments when you can see his impish flair for improvisation shine through, and these moments highlight how little time he gets to loosen – or at least how little of it made it the final cut.