Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
At the beginning of the year, The Intervention had its worldwide premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, and the buzz has hardly let up since then. The film, available now on VOD, is written and directed by Clea DuVall, who also stars here after a fantastic run on this past season of Veep. If back to school season has you missing your childhood, high school, or college group of friends, you’ll want to sit down for The Intervention.
There’s something special about telling a story revolving around a group of friends lately. Fellow 2016 Sundance film Joshy explored the theme, as did About Alex in 2014 (Jason Ritter stars in that film as well as The Intervention), and The Big Chill before that. This could be a reflection of the times that our group of friends frequently serves more as a family than our actual own flesh and blood relatives. The act of coming together and being in the same place as people you are close to is also quickly becoming a phenomenon, what with social media now serving as our main source of communication. Either way, there is something about a handful of old pals coming together for a weekend that we as viewers clearly find quite satisfying.
The Intervention is no exception. With a cast that also includes Melanie Lynskey, Ben Schwartz, Alia Shawkat, Natasha Lyonne, Vincent Piazza and Cobie Smulders, it would be hard for this move not to be delightful. Lynskey’s character, Annie, is organizing the reunion for the group in their Georgia childhood hometown, with the main intention of throwing an intervention for Smulders and Piazza’s Ruby and Peter. Annie wants them to confront the fact that they don’t seem happy in their marriage anymore and encourage them to get a divorce, with perhaps just a touch of projection seeping into this suggestion.
Of course, all of the other characters have packed their (literal and metaphorical) baggage and flaws and brought them along for the weekend. The planned intervention goes the “worst case scenario” route, and the group doesn’t leave the house before another intervention happens.
The film is less feel-good and more of a confirmation that life is strange and hard and also sometimes okay. The performances from the cast are some of the best they’ve brought to the screen. You can’t help but love the always dependable Lynskey, even when you want to both shake and hug her character. Schwartz tones down the wacky and lets his sweeter side shine, as does Lyonne, in a performance much softer than we’re used to seeing on Orange is the New Black. Shawkat and Piazza both make their moments count, and there’s not a bad thing to be said about Ritter. But it’s Smulders that brings the fiercest performance to the screen, slicing through her sharp-tongued dialogue with a rage we don’t often see from her. It should be noted that DuVall is also solid, especially considering she was pulling double duty during the shoot. Not too shabby for a first time director!
The Intervention is the comfort food of movies, like a slice of pizza that’s not perfect, but it’s familiar and easy and it’s good. The film handles relationships, sex, friendships, and major life decisions in a realistic yet, at certain points, idealized way. They don’t shy away from loss and infidelity and alcoholism, but you also won’t walk away from the film feeling depressed. If anything, you’ll want to give your close pals a call, because if there’s a lesson to be learned from The Intervention, it’s that minding your own business is no fun at all.
