Share. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in a stylish and killer comedy-thriller from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in a stylish and killer comedy-thriller from Bridesmaids director Paul Feig.
Impeccably dressed and poised for success, Paul Feig’s new comedy-thriller A Simple Favor is one of the sharpest comedies of the year. It’s also one of the most dastardly thrillers in recent memory. And somewhere inside of it there’s a recipe for zucchini chocolate chip cookies that probably tastes better than it sounds.
A Simple Favor stars Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers, a “Mommy Blogger” with a web series that teaches fellow moms how to combine baked goods and origami, and make other charmingly elaborate treats. Stephanie is a perfect mom, whose son is best friends with a boy whose mother, Emily Nelson, is perfect in different kinds of ways.
Blake Lively plays Emily as a golden age Hollywood star, decked out in the perfect tuxedo attire of Greta Garbo. She’s crass and inappropriate; when Stephanie suggests their sons have a playdate, Emily says, “Mommy already has a playdate with a symphony of antidepressants.” Stephanie is clearly attracted to the affluence, the style and the sultry sexuality of Emily, while Emily is clearly attracted to the fact that Stephanie can be exploited as a free babysitting service.
One day, Emily asks Stephanie for “a simple favor,” to pick her son up from school while she has an emergency at work. But a simple favor becomes a complex mystery when Emily never returns home. Days go by, and Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) - who was out of the country, visiting his sick mother - finally files a missing person’s report.
Did Emily run away? Is she missing? Is she dead? A Simple Favor has it every which way, twisting and reversing its plot to cover all the bases. The mystery unfolds one way, then folds back up again to unfold into a different position. Only a few things are certain: it’s more complicated than it first appears, it’s insidiously suspenseful, and it’s funny as hell.
Exit Theatre Mode
Paul Feig has earned his reputation as the director of the blockbuster comedy Bridesmaids, but his subsequent films - like Spy, The Heat and Ghostbusters - all suffer from the same problem. They may be funny but they’re frustratingly shabby, with plots that dangle by the wayside in order to let the comedians riff to their hearts’ content, pacing be damned.
A Simple Favor isn’t just a delivery system for improvisation. It’s a tightly plotted puzzle box screenplay with delightful dialogue and creepy themes. There’s a lot more to Emily than you might expect, but there’s also a lot more to Stephanie. Some of the revelations about characters you like will shift your expectations of what A Simple Favor is, and what it’s about to become. Those expectations will probably be dashed long before the credits roll, in one spry twist after another.
Anna Kendrick completely owns this motion picture, which seems to have been tailor made just for her. She’s a natural comedic talent, with pitch perfect timing of an expression that always looks like she’s about to turn to the camera and ask if we can really believe what’s happening. The chemistry she has with Blake Livey - perfectly cast as an impeccable style model whose abilities should never be underestimated - is intimate, sensual, but always a little at arm’s length. Their relationship is based on jealousy and condescension, even though only one of them seems to realize it.
A Simple Favor probably doesn’t need to be nearly two hours long, and could almost certainly have wrapped itself up a little quicker. But the running time does give Paul Feig time to let his audience get used to each new revelation, and think maybe - just maybe - the movie has given up all its secrets, and is finally settling down. Don’t be fooled.
Or rather, go ahead and be fooled. Letting this witty thriller get the best of you is half the fun.
This post contains spoilers for A Simple Favor.
How does one best describe A Simple Favor, the truly bonkers new thriller from Paul Feig starring Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick? Upon first look at the trailer, it seemed like yet another polished Hollywood response to Gone Girl, David Fincher’s sleek blockbuster adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel about a housewife who escapes her old life and goes on a villainous tear. A Simple Favor has similar themes; it revolves around Stephanie, a devoted mommy vlogger (Kendrick) and her best friend Emily (Lively), a mysterious, sartorially blessed P.R. exec who up and disappears one day. For the first half of the movie, it’s just that—a straight-faced drama about a missing woman, peppered with twinges of dark humor. But the second half takes that Gone Girl splash and mixes it with the true-crime satire of Serial Mom, John Waters’s glossy 1994 romp about a picture-perfect housewife with a taste for murder. Which is to say, it loses its mind and takes the audience on a crazy, flashy journey, amping up each plot twist with a bigger, wilder plot twist. Let’s break it down, shall we?
SPOILERS ALL THE WAY DOWN
For starters, the crux of A Simple Favor rests on a time-honored plot-twist tradition: secret twin. Once Emily disappears, Stephanie starts digging and, after a long journey, finds out that Emily’s been lying about her identity. Her real name is Faith and she’s got an identical twin named Hope. The girls grew up in a strict household with a manic father, and one day they snap and set one wing of their giant house on fire, killing him. The story gets picked up in the local news, with folks wondering what happened to the girls. Worried about getting arrested—and aware that a pair of towering blonde twins are super conspicuous—the teens split up, agreeing to meet again at an agreed upon date. But when it’s time to meet, Hope doesn’t show up. So, Faith journeys off on her own, refashioning herself as Emily (after a whole side journey involving Linda Cardellini’s artist character) and becoming a high-powered publicity exec in Manhattan.
So, why, after landing a dream job, dream house, dream husband (Sean, played by immaculate prince Henry Golding) and exactly one adorable child, did she blow up her life and escape from it all? Money! The answer is always money. As Emily explains early on in the film, she and Sean are a little broke. Plus, they’ve struggled to sell their house, an item that would have lent them some quick cash. Now, this is where the twists get a little hairy because even though Emily says they’re broke, they still seem to live quite nicely. Sean works at a nearby university. She still has her exec job. If anything, they should have found a way to off the house and get some insurance money. Alas, sensible and illegal-light (O.K., illegal-heavy) are not the stuff of movie plots, honey!
Emily convinces Sean to take out a $4 million life-insurance policy on her and then disappears. When her sister, Hope, turns up again—now a lined, crippling junkie—and tries to blackmail her by drawing her out to Michigan and asking for a million dollars, Emily has her aha moment: she drowns Hope in the lake and, thanks to that whole identical twin thing, the police find the body and assume it’s her. Four-million dollars on the way, easy.
Oh, you sweet sucker. Of course, it’s not that simple (favor). Against their better judgment, Stephanie and Sean start hooking up, which makes Emily furious as she watches (somehow) from afar. Stephanie then investigates Emily’s disappearance and finds out everything, then drops incredibly bold subtweets on her mommy vlog (which Emily watches, furiously). The pair has a martini-drenched tête-à-tête at Emily’s (or shall we say “Emily’s”) gravesite, agreeing to a new plan: now, Emily will return to town and tell the police it was actually her twin who died (but, you know, not by murder). Then, she’ll say she escaped because Sean was actually an abusive partner.
So, why would Stephanie bother going along with this plan even though she’s now in love with Sean and Emily is a terrible friend? It’s because she’s not going along with it. Welcome to time-honored plot twist No. 2: fake-agreeing with the evil person’s plan so you can get a secretly taped confession of all the evil things they’ve done! It’s set up neatly. Emily and Sean meet face-to-face at their beautiful, unsellable house, where he asks all manner of why-would-yous and how-could-yous, hoping to tease a clean, audible confession for the police listening on mic nearby. Then Stephanie turns up wielding a gun and giving Emily her best crazy eyes, trying not so much to tease, but to straight up cudgel a confession. She even shoots Sean in the chest and it looks pretty convincing, with fake blood quickly pooling his chest. And they get the confession! Victory!
Just kidding, when will you learn? Emily, evil mastermind, saw this coming from a mile away so she (SOMEHOW?) cuts their mics! Plus, the SWAT team that Stephanie secretly asked to show up at the house? Yeah, Emily called them and, putting on her best Stephanie voice, convinced them the meet-up had been changed to another location. Then, she pulls out a surprise gun and actually shoots Sean in the chest. Thus, the moral of the story is that one should never cross Blake Lively . . .
But the secret twist moral is one should never cross a mommy vlogger! After Emily shoots Sean, Stephanie reveals that she’s actually been live-streaming the whole entire exchange via a tiny little camera on her chest that looks like a button. And the SWAT team (that actually turned up at the other location despite the whole, you know, live-streaming thing?) finally arrives. And then, young Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan, and Stellan Skarsgård show up and start singing ABBA. Incredible!
Fine, that doesn’t really happen. But it is within the realm of possibility in A Simple Favor, which contains all realms and all possibilities. It ends with Stephanie living out her viral mommy-vlog dreams, Sean moving across the country, and Emily finding her niche . . . in prison.
Anna Kendrick (left) becomes fascinated by her new BFF (Blake Lively) in "A Simple Favor." (Photo: Peter Iovino)
In the stylish new mystery "A Simple Favor," Blake Lively's fashion design executive warns Anna Kendrick's supermom, "Oh, you do not want to be friends with me. Trust me."
Oh, yes we do! Paul Feig's latest movie gives the "Bridesmaids" and "The Heat" director (and metro Detroit native) a break from pure comedy — and a chance to tackle a stylish, cat-and-mouse mystery that feels much like a suspenseful beach read.
With its glamorous cast, humorous undertones and wicked twists, "A Simple Favor" is a fun way to say goodbye to the summer cinema season. We spoke recently with Feig, who elaborated on the film's seven essential treats.
More: Review: Thriller ‘A Simple Favor’ is deliciously campy
1. The opening credits
Before you even dig in to your popcorn, "A Simple Favor" announces its tone by mixing a zippy French pop song with images of purses, brownies and cocktails. Instead of the unrelieved bleakness of thrillers like HBO's "Sharp Objects," get ready for quirky characters in upscale settings.
"It's my way to tell the audience, 'OK, this is a thriller and you're going to be scared and it's going to be dark and all this. But if you feel like laughing at something, I have given you permission to laugh at it. ... It's all on purpose.'" says Feig. "If I had started this movie with really dramatic music and 'Oh, this is going to be tense,' and then something really funny happens, you'd be like 'Wait, is this suppose to be funny or did you make a mistake?' "
Anna Kendrick stars as a small-town mommy blogger who investigates the disappearance of her wealthy best friend in the mystery "A Simple Favor" (Sept. 14). (Photo: PETER IOVINO)
2. Anna Kendrick
The "Pitch Perfect" star is, yes, perfection as Stephanie, a tightly-wound mommy blogger who wears cute animal-print socks from Target and needs to be told not to take all the jobs at her young son's school events.
But Stephanie isn't a victim here, according to Feig. She is a woman who becomes an amateur sleuth when her new best friend, Emily — whose son goes to the same school — disappears suddenly without a trace.
And Stephanie, it's revealed, has secrets of her own to keep.
As with "Bridesmaids," "The Heat" and the fanboy-slammed, female-cast reboot of "Ghostbusters," Feig explores the relationship dynamics between the friends. He took on "A Simple Favor" not as a woman-in-peril movie, but as a thriller with two compelling female characters.
"There have been so many bad portrayals of women on screen over the years, I just really want to make sure I don't add to that," he explains.
A SIMPLE FAVOR (Photo: PETER IOVINO/SMPSP)
3. Blake Lively
The "Gossip Girl" veteran revels in the role of Emily, a deliciously anti-helicopter mom.
When Stephanie suggests a play date for their sons, Emily quips, "I already have a play date with a symphony of anti-depressants." And when Stephanie drops one of her frequent apologies as they bond over afternoon drinks, Emily warns, "Baby, if you apologize again, I'm going to have to slap the sorry out of you."
Decked out in stunning, menswear-inspired suits and dripping with fierce attitude, Emily dazzles Stephanie. It's such a great performance by Lively that you almost wish the character would be transplanted to a TV spin-off called "Gossip Moms."
Sean (Henry Golding) is a worried husband in "A Simple Favor." (Photo: Peter Iovino/Lionsgate)
4. Henry Golding
Talk about serendipitous timing. Golding is now so famous for his debut film, the box-office smash "Crazy Rich Asians," that he recently was added to a new poster for "A Simple Favor," in which he plays Sean, Emily's stressed-out husband.
Feig recalls hearing about Golding, who'd just finished filming on "Crazy Rich Asians," and going online to watch him in his former job as a travel show host. Immediately, Feig was impressed with Golding's charisma.
"I called up Jon Chu, who directed 'Crazy Rich Asians' and and just said, 'Jon, I'm thinking of casting this guy. Is he the real deal? Can he act?' And he said, 'Henry is the greatest. You will love him and he's so talented and he's a natural and he takes direction. He just wants to be as good as he can.' "
After Golding did an audition and a screen test with Lively, Feig knew he was the right guy for the part.
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 20: Blake Lively and Paul Feig attend the 2018 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall on August 20, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for MTV) ORG XMIT: 775211580 ORIG FILE ID: 1020326496 (Photo: Mike Coppola, Getty Images for MTV)
"You just go...there's no way this guy isn't going to be a star!" says Feig.
5. The movie's throwback to sleek mysteries of yore
Feig says he was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock movies "just because of the tone that he always found, which was he was really able to walk that line between thriller and comedy."
Feig also admires Hitchcock regular Cary Grant's combination of humor and elegance, which is an essential combination of "A Simple Favor."
"I love thrillers," he says. "I love the genre. But I always find myself wishing they were a little more fun at the same time, while still taking them dead seriously."
6. The Michigan presence
Part of the action is set in Michigan, and there are references to the small town of Standish, the Marquette County police and the I-75 freeway. Is this Feig's way of giving a nod to his home state?
Actually, Michigan is a location in the novel "A Simple Favor" by Darcey Bell that was the basis for the screenplay by Jessica Sharzer. But Feig is ready to take some credit.
"I don't even remember if the book, the original, was in Michigan. I think it might have been, but I'm always looking to put Michigan in a film," he says. "So I'll say, yes, if it was in the book, I reinforced it by making sure we knew it was in Michigan."
Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and Peter Quinn (Rupert Friend) try to save the president in the Season 6 finale of Showtime's 'Homeland.' (Photo: Jeff Neumann, Showtime)
7. The 'Homeland' angle
As fans of the Showtime spy drama know, Rupert Friend's Peter Quinn endured enough pain and suffering on the pay-cable series for at least 10 characters.
That's why it's such a delight to see the British actor portray a hilariously arrogant fashion designer named Dennis Nylon.
"Never wear a vintage Hermes scarf with a Gap T-shirt," Nylon chides Stephanie at one point. "If you were truly Emily's friend, you'd know that."
The assignment must have been therapeutic for Friend after all those seasons of pay-cable agony.
Says Feig: "The funny thing is we sent the script to him just to see if he wanted to do anything in it and he comes back and he wants to do Dennis Nylon. I was like, 'What?' I never would have predicted that, because I know him from 'Homeland,' too and was like, 'You're super serious. How can you play this role?' And it turns out he's really funny."
CLOSE In "A Simple Favor," the disappearance of a woman (Blake Lively) has surprising consequences for her husband (Henry Golding) and her best friend (Anna Kendrick). Paul Feig directs. Lionsgate
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds: 313-222-6427 or jhinds@freepress.com.
'A Simple Favor'
Rated R
Opens Friday
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A SIMPLE FAVOR, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily's (Blake Lively) sudden disappearance from their small town. Stephanie is joined by Emily's husband Sean (Henry Golding) in this stylish thriller filled with twists and betrayals, secrets and revelations, love and loyalty, murder and revenge.
