The Uninvited: A Delightful Film Showcasing The Problems With Human Insecurity

Nadia Connors writes and directs a wonderfully witty film, about a couple, Rose (Elizabeth Reaser) and Sammy (Walton Goggins), who are fed up with their lives in Hollywood.

Rose is a “washed up” actress, dealing with the ageism of women in Hollywood, and Sammy is a burnt out agent, who’s entire career may be on the line.

Both of them bring their own insecurity and toxic traits to the relationship, and their son Wilder (Roland Rubio).

When an unexpected guest shows up on the day of an important party, Rose, Sammy, and the some of the guests, are forced to look inwards, the place where all of their insecurities lie.

The Party

The film opens on a chaotic whirl of Rose and Sammy talking “at” each other while being stressed about a last attempt party for Sammy, and his big star director client, Gerald (Rufus Sewell). Sammy hopes to jumpstart his ailing career by inviting influential people over.

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Sammy is on his last thread with the agency he works at and wants out, but struggles with the need to put on a show, so he doesn’t lose the aesthetic of being on top of his game, nor their lavish lifestyle.

Rose, starts the film looking absolutely perfect for her “age”, while berating herself in a mirror and arguing with Sammy about what she should wear.

An elderly woman, Helen (Lois Smith), shows up at their driveway, claiming that this is her house and she can’t open the gate. Rose is compassionate, and brings her in to their house to try to help her figure out a way home.

Helen has little information on her, and goes back and forth from clarity to memories of the past, making it more confusing to figure out how to help her.

While she is there, the party guests start to arrive, and Rose and Sammy are pulled in multiple directions to be great hosts and serve their friends and clients, while trying to solve the mystery of Helen.

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Looking outside for validation

Things start to get more chaotic the more people arrive. Delia (Eva de Dominici), is the new “it girl” in Hollywood. She is younger than Rose, and as the night moves forward, Rose finds out that Delia is going to be playing a character that Rose once did.

Lucien (Pedro Pascal), an old flame of Rose’s, and, a matter of contention between she and Sammy, also shows up to the party.

Lucien is a stereotypical artistic fuck up, who jumps from film to film and person to person, in an ineffectual attempt to create meaning in his void of self awareness and self esteem.

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Though he is “charming”, he lacks the depth and clarity to figure out that he’s the problem in his life, and instead, finds distraction in fame, alcohol, and all the women he charms into bed.

As so many lost people do, many of these characters are searching on the outside of them for “fixes” to their problems on the inside, which, of course, never works.

Throughout the night, Rose and Sammy, and many of their guests, find the flaws within themselves that are hindering their own growth and personal success. They have to come to grips with this truth in order to save any last shred of who they really are and what they have.

Will they be able to own it, or will they choose to stay in false ego, inevitably crashing down in a fireball of self destruction?

In all honesty…

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Conners has created a brilliant film the likes of which we haven’t seen in a very long time.

The writing is tight, and the characters are wonderfully distinctive and well connected through their differing situations. It is succinct, fun, and wildly enjoyable.

The pacing was wonderfully fast and smooth. This could be an actual play, as she first intended it, and something I would highly enjoy seeing with other actor interpretations.

She uses perfect acuity, assigning certain stereotypes of typical film industry “professionals” as characters, which casts just the right amount of comedic elements for amusement.

Each character arc is started and wrapped up well, though I wished that the overall story could’ve ended more profoundly. I was hoping that perhaps Helen’s character would’ve been something more “spiritual” and opened their eyes more to their flaws and what they couldn’t see about themselves.

After all, there was use of aura pictures, and Lois had a white one. That generally indicates a highly spiritual, connected to “God” energy, and I hoped it was more about her being an ethereal character, to guide the people, versus the meaning put forth, which, I interpreted, as being closer to death.

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That said, it wasn’t a bad ending, it just needed more of a punch, or “aha” moment. I hoped Helen would be something a little more esoteric or Masterful. Many of the characters were impacted for the better, I’m just wondering if, with what wisdom she shared, it would be enough to wake them up and start them down a road of healing.

I was very appreciative of Conner’s message regarding the toxic, racist, and ageist expectations of women who work in Hollywood.

This needs much more attention from many more artists and executives, to bring about the change that is desperately needed in the entertainment industry as a whole.

It was outright laughable, with Reaser’s physical perfection (in Hollywood standards), that it would even have been mentioned at all. The woman has no physical flaws anywhere.

Goggins and Pascal did particularly great work with each of their characters.

Pascal’s Lucien was absolutely brilliant in his depiction of a performer that was an absolute disaster yet, was still able to attract so many other low self esteem women. He was charming, yet scared, insecure and completely overly dramatic about everything.

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Goggins’s Sammy was self centered, somewhat charming, angry, bitter, yet ultimately surrendering, and a fatally flawed character, who understands pain but really wants to know how to love better.

Goggins’s portrayal is so honest and refined that I wanted to give him a hug by the end.

The sheer lunacy of the film industry is a living parody of itself. The ego, portrayed by Sewell’s Gerald, was spot on.

The fact that any person with sensitivity and a heart would want to be part of this shrewd industry is absolutely mind blowing. For now, though, there seems to be nowhere else for artists to go, if they want to pursue their art professionally.

I, for one, would love to see that changed. That would be something that artists will have to demand collectively, whilst dropping the ego, diva behavior and the excruciatingly unnecessary A-List salaries.

But that just doesn’t seem possible at the moment.

Enlightenment is possible, but only if, like Sammy and Rose, we all have the courage to look inside, heal and understand that everyone deserves better than what we have as a society today.