*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS*
A Simple Favor centers around Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), a mother who likes to make 'vlogs' (video blogs) and bake. She soon meets Emily (Blake Lively), after their sons, Miles (Joshua Satine) and Nicky (Ian Ho) have a play date together. At Emily's house, Stephanie discovers that Emily isn't your typical mom. She likes to drink martinis in the middle of the day, swears and has an unapologetic attitude. Despite their differences in personality, the two women bond and, one day, Emily asks Stephanie if she could do 'a simple favor' of looking after Nicky, which Stephanie accepts. However, after Emily fails to pick up Nicky or answer any of Stephanie's texts and calls, Stephanie soon begins to worry, leading to her and Emily's husband, Sean (Henry Golding), contacting the authorities. This leads to secrets being revealed, tension between characters and shocking revelations.
The best aspect of A Simple Favor of the performances of the two female leads. Kendrick and Lively both give strong performances. Kendrick develops Stephanie from a shy, timid mother to a witty, smart and confident woman. Lively’s Emily’s personality is similar to that of Rosamund Pike's Amy Dunne from the 2014 film, Gone Girl. She likes to drink in the middle of the day, specifically martinis, swears and is unapologetic about her behaviour. We never know what she’s going to do next. Kendrick and Lively's performances are why A Simple Favor is worth watching. They work really well together and are convincing as their characters, who are both interesting individuals. Henry Golding recently appeared in the successful romantic comedy, Crazy Rich Asians, and he proved to be charming as the leading man. I’ve heard criticism towards his performance in A Simple Favor which I think is unfair. His portrayal of Sean isn’t as good as his performance of Nick in Crazy Rich Asians, however, he gives a good performance. I wasn’t sure if his character could be trusted, especially after he makes a move on Stephanie, following a revelation about Emily.
The narrative for A Simple Favor is full of twists and turns, especially in its final act. This was a little confusing at first as I didn’t know who was siding with who. Kendrick gives her best performance during these scenes as we see that Stephanie isn’t just a cute vlogger, she’s smart and can outwit Emily. I thought that this was an interesting change in her character as, in the beginning, she’s your typical mom who likes to make videos, bake cakes and play with her son. By the end of the film, she has adopted some aspects of Emily’s personality and even begins wearing her clothes. This leads to an amusing scene where she struggles to take Emily's black dress off and she has to talk to a detective. Her body language during this scene shows how awkward she feels as she's not used to wearing sexy dresses. Most of the second act focuses on Stephanie as she tries to figure out what really happened to Emily. She does this by visiting the artist, Diana Hyland (Linda Cardellini), who painted a nude portrait of Emily, and Emily's mother who makes a surprising revelation. By this point, viewers will begin to get an understanding of who Emily really was and what happened to her.
A Simple Favor is a film that does struggle with its tone. Throughout my first watch, I wasn’t sure if it was a comedy or a thriller. After rewatching it recently, I know that, while it isn’t a laugh a minute comedy, it’s not a serious thriller either. Director, Paul Feig, whose previous features include Bridesmaids, The Heat, and the all-female Ghostbusters remake, handles the comedy well. Most of the comic relief comes from witty one liners or pieces of dialogue. I was more impressed with his ability to create a mystery based thriller. It’s not a perfect film, however, it is thoroughly entertaining.
Like most mystery-based films, tension begins to rise. After Emily is presumed dead, Stephanie and Sean become close and form a relationship. I was a little surprised by this as I expected them to be grieving, however, I soon realised that this was their way of grieving. A Simple Favor is at its most tense during its final act as it involves the three characters and a gun. At this point, I wondered if one of them was going to die and I was on the edge of my seat. I've heard a lot of criticism towards this final scene but I thought it was quite good as Emily thought that she had outsmarted both Stephanie and Sean. What she doesn't know is that Stephanie had a back-up plan. This scene made me like Stephanie more than I did in the beginning as it showed that she's not afraid to stand up to Emily.
While I haven’t read the book that A Simple Favor is based on, I do know that several changes have been made. For example, in the novel, Stephanie is a blogger but, in the film, she's a 'video blogger'. The ending has also been changed. I’m not sure if these changes were an improvement, however, if you have read the book, don’t expect A Simple Favor to be a 100% faithful adaptation. If I’m being honest, I’m yet to see a film that is 100% faithful to its source material.
I'm not sure if A Simple Favor will appeal to everyone, due to its tonal shifts, tongue-in-cheek humour and dark comedy and its inability to be taken seriously, however, I do think it's worth watching as you may be pleasantly surprised. Both Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively give impressive performances and develop their characters into interesting individuals, which makes A Simple Favor very entertaining to watch.
7/10
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