"A Simple Favor" Review - (Non-Spoiler)
Updated: Jun 23, 2019
"A Simple Favor" is directed by Paul Feig and stars Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. It follows Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy blogger who becomes friends with Emily (Blake Lively), who is a very secretive upper-class woman in her neighborhood. In the course of a few days, Emily suddenly disappears. Stephanie then takes it upon herself to uncover the truth behind her best friend's sudden disappearance from their small town. She is also joined by her husband Sean (Henry Golding) to help her along the way.
I went into A Simple Favor completely blind, and I definitely recommend doing it that way! I decided to watch the trailer after I watched the movie, and the trailer doesn't do the movie justice. To my delight, Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids, provides us with an extremely entertaining and engaging thriller/mystery/comedy. In my opinion, A Simple Favor utilizes both serious and funny techniques, openly making fun of how ridiculous/convoluted a lot of suspense movies like this are.
Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are a great duo and work well off of each other. Blake Lively especially impressed me in this movie. She saunters through every scene dressed like a Marlene Dietrich character with a martini in her hand and a dirty smirk on her lips with more information than she is led on to believe. Anna Kendrick also flips her mousy, adorkable--I cringed typing that word--screen persona on its head.
I really, really enjoyed A Simple Favor, although I do think this movie shouldn't be marketed as a serious noir because it's definitely more of a black comedy. I'm going to give "A Simple Favor" an 8 out of 10.