Sixty years after Mike Nichols’ “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” here we are with another movie involving two couples, one set and a very, very awkward dinner party. Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” takes place almost entirely in one enviable San Francisco heritage apartment, where married couple Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde) have invited their upstairs neighbors Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over for the evening.

Things don’t seem promising, even before the guests arrive: Joe and Angela, whose only child is away on a sleepover, bicker constantly at each other, as Joe makes it clear that he doesn’t want to have people over. Nonetheless, Piña and Hawk show up; after overhearing more than they should in the hallway, Hawk reassures their hosts that “We love a contentious environment.” Let the evening begin!

“The Invite” is the kind of movie that’s generally described as a dark comedy, though it isn’t very funny. At heart it’s roughly 100 minutes in the life of an unhappy marriage, examining what happens to that marriage when an unexpected element is introduced. Piña and Hawk, rather more free-spirited than the exhausted Joe and Angela, raise some questions that their hosts are reluctant to answer, and suggest possibilities they haven’t considered. But Will McCormack and Rashida Jones’ screenplay takes the easy way out, gliding over some of the issues it raises and ending on a note that feels unearned.

What that leaves us with, happily, is an actors’ showcase that keeps our interest, even as the story falls away. Actor/directors tend to be very good at coaxing out interesting performances, and Wilde (“Booksmart,” “Don’t Worry Darling”) does well by her strong cast. Rogen’s hangdog Joe, a man who collapses on the floor when he arrives home for the day as if being upright is just too much effort, gets more wistful and complicated as the evening goes on; you start to be able to see why he and Angela got together in the first place. Wilde, tossing off some perfect physical comedy (watch for the moment when she does battle with her own shirt), brings a desperate eagerness to Angela, whose constant nervous laughter grows increasingly hollow. Norton’s Hawke is smoother than the expensive cheese Angela serves, until he reveals something more complicated beneath the surface; the glorious Cruz, as Piña, is all sly smiles, velvety eye rolls and purring pronouncements.

You might not want to invite any of this quartet over to your own apartment, but they’re good company onscreen.

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'THE INVITE'

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for sexual material, language throughout, and drug use)

Running time: 1:47

How to watch: In theaters nationwide July 10

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