Review of A Simple Favor (2018) by John M — 09 Oct 2018

Mommy mystery. So this is about a single mother, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick). She befriends another parent by the name of Emily (Blake Lively) who has a child at the same elementary school. When Emily goes missing very early on in their friendship.

Stephanie decides to lend a helping hand and do some detective work of her own. Now I had seen trailers for this and I thought that it looked a bit trashy. I could see it going either way, with a best case scenario being something like Gone Girl and worse case scenario being something like The Boy Next Door.

My attention spiked when some quality reviews started to roll in, so I decided to take my wife on a date night. It is actually more of its own thing, which ends up being a good thing in this scenario.

Now this is from director Paul Feig, who is someone I can't say that I'm a fan of. I thought that his Ghostbusters reboot fell on its face, that Spy was criminally overrated and that The Heat was nothing short of atrocious.

His brand doesn't stir confidence from me because I just don't dig his sense of humor... until now, that is. I obviously do not enjoy his straightforward comedies, but this is a mystery-thriller first and a comedy second, so it actually gives anything that is amusing more room to breathe.

This ends up giving A Simple Favor a pretty great flow, which was not something that I was really expecting. In addition to having jokes that hit, this movie has twists and turns for days. You're never 100% certain on how this is all going to turn out in the end, so you're always engaged while this movie is unraveling and entertaining.

Like any good detective story, different leads take you down different paths, so while you think you have everything figured out at minute 40, your perspective is going to be wildly different at minute 60.

I really enjoyed both performances by Kendrick and Lively; Kendrick is spunky and awkward and Lively is confident and uppity, so their personality contrast always makes it so there is an additional edge for any given scene.

I also really liked seeing Henry Golding again so soon after Crazy Rich Asians; he has so much charisma that he truly deserves to be bumped up to A-list leading man. A Simple Favor features a solid script that always keeps you going, quality acting from professionals committed to their roles and a memorable soundtrack.

If you're looking for something fun and adult, I give this an enthusiastic recommendation.