THE UNINVITED
- Kathleen Bondar
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
WRITTEN & DIRECTED BY NADIA CONNERS
CAST: ELIZABETH REASER (Twilight, The Handmaid’s Tale), WALTON GOGGINS (The White Lotus, Django Unchained, The Hateful Eight, Justified), PEDRO PASCAL (Gladiator II, The Last of Us, Narcos, Game of Thrones), LOIS SMITH (Lady Bird, Minority Report, Marjorie Prime, Five Easy Pieces), EVA DE DOMINICI (The Cleaning Lady), RUFUS SEWELL (The Diplomat, Scoop), MICHAEL PANES, KATE COMER, ANNIE KURZEN
IN UK CINEMAS 9TH MAY 2025
REVIEW by KATHLEEN BONDAR
Set in Hollywood in a commodious, Spanish-style villa, Rose (Elizabeth Reaser) and her movie agent husband Sammy (Walton Goggins) throw a party to impress their glamourous circle of contacts. Rose, a talented actor, is a “stay-at-home mom” with a young son named Wilder (Roland Rubio), sidelined by the movie world now she’s middle-aged. Sammy’s boutique casting agency is flailing, and he hopes to bag Gerald (Rufus Sewell), the key guest, as an exclusive client. Just as the party begins, a bewildered, elderly woman with the stage name Helen (Lois Smith) turns up, confused to find her former home occupied by strangers. Rose, who loves to rescue strays, is swept up by the fragile, evidently declining visitor.
The Uninvited is inspired by a real event when the Hollywood couple, director Nadia Conners and her actor husband Walter Goggins, hosted a party and an old lady arrived. “She thought she was home,” remembers Conners. “I looked through her phonebook, trying to find someone who knew her and who could help, but most of the people in it were dead. She had outlived her circle of friends.”
Left: Walter Goggins (Sammy); Centre: Elizabeth Reaser (Rose) with Rufus Sewell (Gerald) Eva De Dominici (Della); Right: Elizabeth Reaser (Rose).
There’s much to unravel in The Uninvited, notably Rose’s thwarted career, the consequence of being a forty-something actress in Hollywood. It’s a well-rehearsed dilemma and there are plenty of off-hand jokes to highlight the irony of older, male actors still in the spotlight whilst women, like Rose, are cast aside. “If only you were ten years younger”, Gerald sighs.
The juxtaposition of Rose with Delia (young, stunning and the next female lead opposite Gerald in a part Rose once performed), played by Eva De Dominici, is not overdone thankfully. Conners tones this down, not least by giving the starlet more depth of character than her shimmering mini-dress and perfect presentation belie.
In fact, Conners gives dimension to all characters, despite the easy stereotypes. Goggins and Sewell are a great double act as the smoochy (desperate) agent and the egotistic movie-star with a God complex on coke, respectively.
In the end it’s Helen’s plight that’s the most compelling in The Uninvited. Lois Smith delivers the part skilfully as an old lady at once confused and insightful as her mental acuity ebbs and flows. Whilst she relapses, thinking the villa is her home and Sammy her wayward husband, she is also observant when in the present. “Go look after your lonely son”, she snaps at Sammy who is obsessed only by hooking Gerald.
There are moments when the low-budget, first-time director feel of the film overide. But an impressive cast and the mix of humour with the realities of the human condition win through. Conners has captured significant elements of all ages, from childhood to middle and old age and the disparities of youth and gender in an unassuming, witty and moving film.
