PARK CITY, Utah — As the opening credits to “The Invite” begin to roll, the audience sees Olivia Wilde stopping by Molinari Delicatessen for jamon. Then, Seth Rogen sits, despondent, in the auditorium of A.P. Giannini Middle School in the Outer Sunset before schlepping his folding bike onto BART. Finally, he pedals up a steep hill alongside cable car tracks and then drags his bike into an apartment with a funky tiled bathroom, which is just cramped enough to feel like San Francisco.

Premiering at Sundance to massive crowds (several hundred ticket holders were turned away from the packed premiere), “The Invite” is Wilde’s latest directorial endeavor after 2022’s controversial “Don’t Worry Darling” and the celebrated 2019 comedy “Booksmart.” Written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, it’s based on a 2020 Spanish film titled “Sentimental.” The plot revolves around a dinner party between two couples: Angela and Joe (Wilde and Rogen), and their upstairs neighbors Hawk and Pina (Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz). San Franciscans will be a bit sad to hear that, aside from that intro, the film takes place entirely inside Joe and Angela’s apartment. Alongside fellow San Francisco film “Josephine,” it has arguably been the biggest hit of the festival.

As the opening credits roll, the film begins with an Oscar Wilde quote — “One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry” — with Joe and Angela as a perfect case study in domestic unrest. Rogen plays a disaffected music teacher whose brief success as a rock star taunts him in the form of an unused music studio and dusty piano. In her role, Olivia Wilde has left her career for........

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