Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are sensational in this film.

The performances are tantalisingly natural. You never quite know which thought is going to surface next, but you can see the characters processing every revelation and every step backwards in real time.

The moments of physical comedy scattered throughout are perfection. The timing is excellent and there is an extraordinary level of detail in every glance, pause and breath.

You’re in the room with these people.

When you’re not distracted by a phone three seats down your row, that is.

I went into The Invite not knowing what to expect. I saw the words “Comedy of the Year” and instantly booked a ticket.

The premise is simple: one couple has endured the other having very loud sex upstairs and invites them over for dinner to discuss it.

That is all I’m telling you, because the premise is not the main attraction. It is everything that unfolds around it. The conversations, the interruptions, the divisions and the quiet tests of character.

Based on Cesc Gay’s play and later Spanish film Sentimental (The People Upstairs), this adaptation keeps many of its theatrical conventions, and that works to great effect.

Playing almost in real time, or at least with very few obvious cuts, the emotional rises and falls of this dinner party become captivating and deliciously uncomfortable.

There are moments where the pacing almost stops dead. On stage, this would probably be sensational. On screen, without the framing of a proscenium arch, the film occasionally demands a little more kinetic energy.

It works, but if you are not fully invested, or if the humour and sentimentality of each revelation misses you, it has the potential to feel much longer than it is.

This is not a romcom. It is not even really a comedy.

It is funny and incredibly entertaining, but it does not deliver a neatly packaged ending for you to take home and nurture.

Instead, it might leave you questioning yourself, your relationships, your place in the world and your own future.

Had I known more about the film beforehand, I probably would not have seen it, and that would have been a great shame.

I think this is one people should consider seeing on their own.

It is one of those rare films that might leave you feeling changed.

Or not.