Written by: Jessica Sharzer
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini
Rating: [4.5/5]
The image an individual displays out into the world versus their true personality behind closed doors makes any interaction you have with someone inherently disingenuous. Nothing done with malice but the truth of not seeing someone’s authentic self. A Simple Favor makes the case that sometimes you don’t really want to get to know everyone, because on occasion you’ll get tangled up in a web of deception and manipulation in such a deliciously delectable way.
Living as a single mother, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) makes money through her vlog giving mothering tips to her audience. When picking up her son at school, she meets the enigmatic mother of her son’s friend named Emily (Blake Lively). As they spend more time together, Stephanie builds a fascination with Emily, which makes the latter’s sudden disappearance a complete shock.
Stories with twists and turns toe a fine line in not only the number of reveals utilized but the manner in which they occur in the narrative. Quite often, too many twists become the detriment of a story, but when handled in the darkly comedic manner A Simple Favor decides to employ, it makes for a story with bundles of fun and complete shock. This feature absolutely pushes the envelope on certain subject areas and what it displays but this distinct juxtaposition from the sterile and clean world Stephanie built for herself combines everything into an entertaining mess.
Stephanie embodies this stereotypical online mom in the way she presents this very perfect lifestyle, a good kid, and well-adjusted enough to give tips despite her husband dying not too long ago. It gets to the point where her personality and appearance present a performance. She makes the cupcakes for the PTO meetings, knows all of the other mothers by name, and always uses the proper language around her kids. Emily’s introduction to the story represents her complete and utter antithesis. She curses, does not have the same care for her son as Stephanie, and likes a mean strong drink at the end of the day. Their collision and friendship create this meeting of the minds where someone will get hurt; we just need to figure out how.
Writing about films with so many twists integral to the plot adds a degree of difficulty in fully delving into its themes without giving away key plot points. Especially for a film like this in the shocking direction it goes, it would be a disservice to reveal anything more than what you can see in the trailer. As you can glean from the advertising, Emily goes missing and the journey of Stephanie trying to uncover where she is and what has happened to her makes for quite the journey into some shocking and troubling territory. She speaks to people in her past and receives different stories, which brings into question the true identity of Emily and what it means for her son and husband Sean (Henry Golding).
Contributing to this clash of personalities includes their style as this feature demonstrates some of the finest modern costume design of the 2010s. You have the very modest safe wardrobe of Stepanie as she continues with this clean image while Emily dons these more daring pieces further creating the contrast along with what they seek to achieve with their lives. What these characters wear and specifically when they wear them says plenty about where the narrative shifts and the striking colors with the backdrop of Emily’s crisply white modern home allows these outfits to pop even more in keeping with their personality.
With the costumes saying plenty about these characters, the casting equally matters and they did a splendid job in bringing together Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively as they perfectly match what their characters call for. Kendrick’s persona has very much aligned with her representing every-girl people can relate to while Lively has this coolness with her marriage to Ryan Reynolds and operating a different level of celebrity status. They each bring such gravitas to the role and the way Kendrick needs to navigate the multi-faceted nature of Stephanie as the plot progresses. Lively, in turn, excels in this creating enigma of a character who both allures and shocks with her abrasiveness in moments. It makes sense why Stephanie becomes obsessed with her just as anyone would.
Known for constructing some unabashed comedies, Paul Feig has hit his absolute apex with what he manages to create with this feature. He utilizes the exceptional adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jessica Sharzer and they create something infectiously dark and enjoyable. He relishes in the lack of morals displayed on multiple occasions in this feature and what makes these moments incredibly comedic. He allows for several moments where we can laugh at circumstances not typically socially acceptable because of politeness but Feig goes for the jugular on multiple occasions and we’re the beneficiary.
You might suffer from some whiplash by the time we reach the finale from all of the twists, but the story overall brings such satisfaction in the way it dives right into the debauchery going on. These two lead characters become interconnected in hilarious ways and together they make such an entertaining story to follow as things get darker and very hilarious at the same time all culminating in a bombastic finale very much appropriate for this story. Quite the collaboration here and one where everyone involved was firing on all cylinders.
Films with Josh 
