If you’re following director Paul Feig’s hit-and-miss trajectory “A Simple Favor” was on schedule to be a good movie. Turns out it’s considerably more okay than good. There is just enough dark wit, plenty of snappy dialogue, and an entertaining off-beat tone that makes it fairly fun. But despite those strengths, Feig’s film still comes off as a needlessly abrasive Lifetime Original.
“A Simple Favor” would be a disaster if not for the chemistry between its two leads. Anna Kendrick plays a single mother named Stephanie whose nerdy quirks and can-do spirit doesn’t exactly ingratiate her to her son’s home room teacher and other parents. This role isn’t a stretch for Kendrick who basically plays this type of perky character in every movie she’s in. But to her credit she’s good at them.
Stephanie hits it off with the most unlikeliest of moms – Emily Nelson (played by Blake Lively). She’s a glamorous and overly crass diva who is married to hunky novelist Sean (Henry Golding in what is becoming a pretty routine role for him). Stephanie is quickly seduced by the boozy Emily’s high fashion, fancy home, and care-free attitude. Emily’s interest in Stephanie is harder to figure out and becomes even more of a puzzle once Emily up and vanishes.
From there the movie essentially turns into “Gone Girl” minus the suspense. Feig and writer Jessica Sharzer try to nurture a layer of mystery, but it’s hard to buy any of what they’re selling. You know pretty early that plenty of twists are on the way and the movie doesn’t do a great job of hiding them. And by the time you get to the ridiculous finale it feels like Feig is just throwing a bunch of endings against the wall and seeing which one sticks.
But again, the chemistry between Kendrick and Lively keeps the film afloat. Neither of their characters make much sense and their actions often leave you scratching your head. But both seem to be having a lot of fun. Minus her astonishingly poor judgement and glaring naïveté, Kendrick’s Stephanie adds the most levity especially when she’s shooting her video blog. Lively is often pointlessly racy, but she shows off a savagely fun personality.
But again, I end up right back in the same place. It’s an odd movie that’s all over the genre map yet it doesn’t firmly land anywhere. It certainly has its moments but I couldn’t help but think it could have worked better if it dove further into its zany black comedy. As it is, “A Simple Favor” doesn’t do enough with its two snappy lead performances and it loses its way the further it goes.
VERDICT : 2.5 STARS
Keith & the Movies 
Great points. Personally I’m on the opposite side, this was my number 1 movie of 2018. Yet I appreciate your read on it. I loved the sudden shifts from one genre to another, but I get it wouldn’t always work for other. Shoot most of the time it doesn’t work that way for me (see Shane Black’s The Predator).
#1? Interesting. I do love that kind of appreciation for a movie. I guess I just didn’t buy those shifts like I hoped to.
“pointlessly racy” – there is no such thing when it comes to brilliant and confident women, especially when it comes to Blake here who was a goddess in this movie
Oh I think it can absolutely be pointless regardless of the sex of the person. It’s the writing that makes it pointless not the gender.
I’m not so sure about watching this. I do like Anna Kendrick while I do agree with you that Paul Feig is hit/miss. Plus, I’m not overly fond of Blake Lively as I think she’s an OK actress but nothing to be wowed by.
Lively is actually really good here. It’s the material that is so spotting. Her character just doesn’t sell that well.
Anna Kendrick’s an awesome actress. I also saw Lachy, Emma, Anthony and Splash in the music video of Alan Doyle’s new song We Don’t Wanna Go Home 💜💛💙
I don’t think Lively’s raciness was pointless, it fit the image her character was trying to create very well. I started off really liking this movie but Kendrick’s character got more annoying as we went on and I was just begging for this movie to be over by the 3rd act.
To me it felt pointless and scripted. I get the image conveying idea, but at times I thought it was so obviously off of the page than from the character. As for Kendrick, I thought she was amusing for a while but her character begins making one baffling choice after another.
Nice review, thanks! I think that you convinced me not to watch this movie when you defined it as “Gone Girl” minus the suspense… I didn’t even like Gone Girl!
If you didn’t like Gone Girl you probably won’t like this one. The only thing that sets it apart is that it does have some moments of humor. Not enough to save the movie, but they are there.
I loved this film when I first saw it but afterwards couldn’t remember what I liked about it.
Realised later, that it was pretty much because I am a little bit in love with Anna Kendrick 😂
It’s a watchable movie for me, no more or less.
That’s pretty much where I land on it. It hints at being more but doesn’t fully capitalize.