It is okay to feel lonely.  It is okay to feel anything.  Of the many misperceptions of being a follower of Christ, one is that you have to be perfect.  If you are not displaying the joy of being loved by God all the time, if you sin, or if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time, to name a few, there are non-believing trolls out there that will call into question your entire Faith.  This line of thinking works in the other direction.  Because of misconceptions that Christians think they are perfect, or that having a relationship with God will make life perfect, more damage is caused.  Perfection can be pursued, but it also needs to also be accepted that it is not attainable.  What is arguably harder is the latter half of that last sentence.  In this review of You’re Cordially Invited, you are going to read about two main characters that are afraid of being alone, and try to cling to some imagined, perfect scenario with the few people about whom they care.  What they come to understand is that they have to let go, and let God, even if they do not put it in the same way as I do.

The first person to whom Jim (Will Ferrell) would say You’re Cordially Invited is Jenni (Geraldine Viswanathan), his daughter.  Actually, “cordially” is the wrong word.  Jim’s world has revolved around Jenni since her mother died when she was a child.  As such, though he does not yet know it, he has an unrealistic expectation that, now that she is graduated from college, she will be moving home.  Instead, she arrives with Oliver (Stony Blyden), her boyfriend and, as an added surprise for Jim, her fiancé.  Once Jim recovers from his shock, he becomes determined to make the best wedding for them.  For him, this means booking Palmetto Island Inn in Georgia, the place where he had married Jenni’s mom.  The elderly woman who takes their reservation, however, dies before she can get a new pen to go over the lines with their name in their date book.  We then shift to Los Angeles network producer Margot (Reese Witherspoon).  As she is busy taking meetings in the office, including one with Peyton Manning (as himself), she is visited by her dear little sister, Neve (Meredith Hagner), and her new soon-to-be husband, Dixon (Jimmy Tatro).  They have come to Los Angeles from their native Atlanta to deliver the news in person because of the importance of Neve to Margot.  Margot immediately volunteers to do all the planning, and because they had practically grown up together on Palmetto Island, naturally they choose the inn.  Margot is also not keen on inviting the rest of their family, particularly their mother Flora (Celia Weston), with whom they have had a troubled relationship.  I think you can guess the day selected for the nuptials.  This would not be a problem if not for the establishment’s policy of only have one ceremony a weekend, citing the limited space.  The two parties arrive at Palmetto Island at the same time, with Jim and Margot suspiciously eyeing one another.  Waiting for the inevitable clash is the inn’s hapless manager, Leslie (Jack McBrayer).  Initially, he sides with Margot since her reservation is clearly written in pen and they have a credit card on file.  Jim makes his case stronger when he looks at the date book, takes a pencil, and highlights where their name had been written in a dry pen.  The problem with the credit card remains, unfortunately.  Once everyone has calmed down, Margot learns that Jim had been wed to his late wife at this location, and thus they compromise on using the setting.  The first agreement is the rehearsal dinner: Neve’s event will be in the picturesque barn, while Jenni’s will be outside.  This works out well, despite the loud music from Oliver’s disc jockey (DJ) skills, until it starts raining.  While most of the guests in both groups are accommodating, Margot is not happy with the outsiders crashing their party.  She also gets a bit drunk from consuming all the alcohol Neve is attempting to stress drink.  The bride-to-be is feeling under pressure not just because of the big day, but also due to hiding a pregnancy from her judgmental mother.  In her inebriated state, Margot tries to top Jim’s congratulatory speech and horribly fails.  The next day, as everyone is preparing for the weddings, Jim overhears Margot saying bad things about him and Jenni.  This marks the beginning of them spitefully trying to sabotage each other’s plans.  Jim commences the hostilities, using up the last remaining light from the sunset by prolonging a poem read by the maid-of-honor, Heather (Keyla Monterroso Mejia).  Next, as Dixon and Neve are set to exchange their vows, Jim has Captain Barry (Fortune Feimster), the overly enthusiastic person that operates the boat bringing people to the island, buzz the wedding dock.  I say “overly enthusiastic” because she goes for an unasked for second pass, which takes out where the bride and groom are standing and dumps them all into the water.  When Margot learns that Jim is behind these shenanigans, she and her siblings decide to do all they can to wreck Jenni’s reception.  Still, Margot feels somewhat guilty for this, and tries to warn the other bride upon mistakenly seeing Oliver making out with one of the bridesmaids.  It turns out to be one of the groomsmen doing the kissing.  Yet, because Jim wanted Margot nowhere near Jenni, he proceeds with the lie and Jenni and Oliver decide to leave in anger, annulling their marriage the next day.  As for Dixon and Neve, they make the best of their situation.  With Dixon’s encouragement, she tells her mom about the pregnancy.  The fact that they are getting along makes Margot look like the bad guy, especially when she airs her grievances at the reception.  In the morning, though, all is forgiven and they help Jim get to Jenni in order to apologize.  Jenni and Oliver decide to stay together, but to postpone getting married.  We finish with everyone getting together for Thanksgiving in Los Angeles.

Actually, I did not reveal all the developments at the end of You’re Cordially Invited.  There is also the strangely tacked on romance between Jim and Margot.  It is the main reason why critics panned what is otherwise a fairly solid piece of cinema.  If there is an argument to be made in favor of a relationship between the two main characters, it is that they share a warped sense of the need to control the lives of those who are important to them.  “Control” might seem like too strenuous of a term, but I am not sure how else to put it.  Nonetheless, it fits the profile of somebody who is lonely.  With their respective persons, they feel that they are losing something fundamental to their identity as people.  I began this review asserting that it is okay to feel alone.  The problem sometimes lies in what we do with that loneliness.  Jim and Margot are classic examples of what not to do, which makes sense since this is a comedy.  Where they deserve some blame, even if this is not an aspect of the movie, is in having their entire worlds wrapped up in another human being.  For Christians, their identity should start with God.  There is a reason we often refer to ourselves as children of God.  In saying this, I do not mean to suggest that Christians are unfeeling creatures.  We believe that Jesus experienced all the emotions we do, from anger to sadness and everything in between.  What matters is what he did with those emotions.  He did not try to ruin the lives of others.  When He was saddened by the death of Lazarus in John 11, He raised His friend from the dead, bringing joy to Lazarus’ sister, Martha and Mary.  Jesus angrily overturning changing tables in the Temple in the Gospels of Mark and Matthew was done as a cleansing measure, not to inflict damage on other peoples’ property.  Of course, had Jim and Margot been in a different frame of mind instead of focusing on their needs, you would have a different movie.  At the same time, just because they react as they do does not mean they are bad people.  Like us Catholics can do in our faith journeys, we see reconciliation by the end of the film.  That is never a bad thing.

It is also never a bad thing to see Reese Witherspoon in a movie, and I enjoyed her performance in You’re Cordially Invited.  Will Ferrell did Will Ferrell things, which is hit or miss.  I will admit there is nothing that stands out about the movie, though there is a fair bit of foul language.  Otherwise, it is unoffensive, overall.