Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell clash in the comedy ‘You’re Cordially Invited.’

Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell clash in the comedy ‘You’re Cordially Invited.’

Do you have the bride or the groom with you? Wait, forget about it. Are you with Will Ferrell or Reese Witherspoon?

Nicholas Stoller’s latest comedy, “You’re Cordially Invited,” unites two celebrities whose filmographies are almost as separated as wedding guests on opposing sides of the aisle. Witherspoon is more strongly linked to romantic comedies, whereas Ferrell is more directly linked to broad comedies. They are both A-list exiles from film genres that have mostly disappeared from theaters in recent years, such as romantic comedies and laugh-out-loud comedies, even if they have both branched out outside their comfort zones.

The streaming-only wedding comedy “You’re Cordially Invited,” which crosses over from “Father of the Bride” and “Wedding Crashers,” brings together these two once-dominant box office powers. It premieres on Prime Video on Thursday. The combo is decent enough, but it would be more accurate to call “You’re Cordially Invited” a wedding film with a higher level of humor than a Ferrell comedy.

Twenty years have passed since Ferrell so tenderly reached out to his mother in “Wedding Crashers,” “Hey, Mom! Please bring us some meatloaf. However, an entire age has gone by. The goal of “You’re Cordially Invited” is to bring back some of the humor of the early 2000s comedies while also making it more sophisticated and appealing to a younger audience. Ferrell portrays Jenni’s (Geraldine Viswanathan) overly loving father in this scene. He is a widower whose daughter provides him with an unhealthy amount of happiness. Jim does her hair and steams her clothes. This time, he’s baking the cake rather than attending the wedding.

Jim finds the good news more like a nightmare when Jenni comes home wearing a ring on her finger and her now-fiance (Stony Blyden) with her. Nevertheless, he pulls himself together and arranges a destination wedding on the little Georgia island where he and his spouse were wed.

In the meantime, we meet Margot (Witherspoon), a successful reality TV executive in Los Angeles, whose younger sister (Meredith Hagner) is marrying her lover (Jimmy Tatro). Her enduring problem is a rift with her family from the Atlanta era and their disapproving mother (Celia Weston), which is rapidly widened by the wedding, which Margot chooses to organize herself.

Jim and Margot give each other dubious looks until they try to check in simultaneously when these two groups arrive on the island a year later. The inn has been double-booked for the weekend due to the sudden death of its longstanding owner, which is especially embarrassing because the island can only host one wedding at a time. Jack McBrayer, who plays the inn’s new, extremely contrite manager, is one of the well-cast supporting parts in “You’re Cordially Invited.”

Jim and Margot debate for a while before deciding to share the space. Naturally, this is the straightforward idea behind “You’re Cordially Invited.” While the two very different wedding parties—one a multicultural DJing crew, the other longtime Southerners—mingle amicably, the arrangement is first peaceful but eventually turns into a full-scale conflict between Margot and Jim.

Everything about “You’re Cordially Invited,” which was also written by Stoller (“Neighbors,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”), starts with its notion, which is its primary flaw. Everything in the plot is set up to support the rival wedding dispute, and the characters seem to have been designed to fit it. You won’t be surprised by anything that happens or seem especially natural. As a result of its fabricated idea, “You’re Cordially Invited” drags for a very short film. The post-credits sing-along in this type of movie feels rushed.

Nevertheless, Stoller’s film is made lively by a diverse range of comedic skills. Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Rory Scovel, Leanne Morgan, and even Peyton Manning, for a little moment, are among them. This should be a showcase for Viswanathan, the gifted actor from “Blockers” and “Bad Education,” but despite being the main character, she doesn’t have much to work with other than getting rid of an overly reliant father. Weston, who plays a difficult-to-impress matriarch so well that you could just as easily cast her in a family drama, is the cast’s high point.

Since “Saturday Night Live,” Ferrell has specialized in portraying unadjusted fathers, and he finds more ways to make Jim an engaging comic character than most people could. Seeing him in a major studio comedy has become so ridiculously uncommon that just the opportunity to say “You’re Cordially Invited” is worth RSVPing for.

Surprisingly, “You’re Cordially Invited” devotes a significant amount of its energy—possibly too much—to resolving Jim and Margot’s disagreements rather than ending with a large humorous set piece. There is a brilliant, self-aware theme of honesty: too much of it in Margot’s cynical family interactions, and too little in Jim and Jenni’s theatrical dynamic.

The fact that everything comes together is primarily a credit to Witherspoon’s skill as an actor. You never question Witherspoon in a film where Ferrell wrestles an alligator and Nick Jonas makes a successful cameo as a singing minister.

The Motion Picture Association has given Amazon MGM Studios’ “You’re Cordially Invited” a R rating due to “language throughout and some sexual references.” 109 minutes of running time. I give it two and a half stars.