A Simple Favor (2018) Review

"Oh, you don't want to be friends with me, trust me."
-Emily Nelson



Single super-mom, Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) meets the mother of her son's best friend, Emily Nelson (Blake Lively), who likes to drink, has a demanding job, and isn't much of a hands-on mother.  The two have hardly any anything in common, but quickly become good friends.  Several weeks later, Emily vanishes without a trace leaving her husband, Sean (Henry Golding) and Stephanie with a mystery on their hands.  As they investigate what happened to Emily, they quickly realize they didn't know her as well as they thought.


What Works:

A Simple Favor works because of the performances of all three leads.  Anna Kendrick is fanatic as the awkward and naive Stephanie.  She has tons of really funny moments and is very sweet, but has an edge to her that she doesn't even realize she has.  Blake Lively is endlessly entertaining, extremely enigmatic, and unbelievably charismatic.  Henry Golding also oozes charisma and adds an unexpected amount of intrigue to the film.  All three of them have excellent chemistry and give us one of the best casts of the year.

The plot is really engaging and has seemingly endless twists and turns that leave you constantly wondering what is going to happen next and what is actually true.  Each of these characters have secrets, each more shocking than the last, and there are some jaw-dropping moments throughout the film.

Director Paul Feig does a great job of giving us his vision of this story.  The direction is marvelous and stylish.  This film wouldn't be nearly as good in a lesser director's hands.

Finally, this film may have the single funniest moment of the year.  I won't give away what it is, but it occurs when Stephanie and Emily are making drunken confessions on Emily's couch.  It's unexpected and I laughed so hard I almost cried.


What Sucks:

My only real complaint with the film is that the twists and turns in the plot almost feel like too much at some points.  It gets to the point where it almost feels like a parody of thrillers.  Granted, it does stick the landing, but the journey isn't entirely smooth.


Verdict:

A Simple Favor is one of my favorite films of the year.  It has excellent performances all around, a really engaging story, great direction, and probably the funniest moment I've seen in a movie so far this year.  Not all of the twists work fully, but the movie resolves it all in the end giving us a thriller that has certainly got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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