Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being too nice. You know, as long as you don’t let anybody walk all over you, and you can spot your real friends from the fakes, because when you can’t…. well let’s just say that devastating outcomes may come from a simple favor.

Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) is more than willing to go above and beyond for her child’s education, but finds it hard to fit in with the other parents. Until she meets Emily (Blake Lively).

Thrown together through their kids’, the stunning, unapologetic and debatably alcoholic Emily ends up defrosting slightly to happy-go-lucky Stephanie, who she soon uncovers has her own questionable side.

Helping out her new friend, Stephanie picks up Emily’s son from school – Unfortunately it’s the last time she hears from her again.

Whilst trying to unpick Emily’s last steps, Stephanie realises the layers to her friend run deep – and the closer she gets the bottom, the more she dreads what she’ll dig up.

Have I ever mentioned how much I appreciate a movie that doesn’t mess around? A Simple Favor cut to the chase from the first scene which instantly had me sat to attention. Why faff around when copious adverts and trailers have already whet our appetites?

The movie wasn’t as simple as we were led to believe – there were rabbit holes to explore, clues to decipher and characters to look twice at, making you feel like you were part of the mystery. Even Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding), for all his unassuming ways wasn’t immune from a distrusting side eye.

I wanted to applaud during that intro to Emily. It was pure cinematic gold and every filmmaker should take notes. It was an entrance perfectly capturing the essence of the character. It was memorable, it caught the audiences attention and immediately had me wanting to know as much as possible about the well dressed devil who didn’t bother wearing a disguise.

Interestingly, I don’t believe either Kendrick’s nor Lively’s characters were supposed to be particularly likable. To that I think each actress performed their roles perfectly, giving the audience the almost impossible choice of deciding which to root for: The Fiendish or The Annoying.

I don’t have anything negative to say about the movie per se… just a few comments about questionable creative decisions.

Firstly, although the movie is described as a mystery thriller, I wonder if black comedy should also be tacked on. There was a lot of controversial jokes in the movie that had me howling, but also at certain points the tone of a scene would shift from serious to something bordering on farce.

Lastly on more of a retrospective point, I was left a little disappointed to realise that the movie seemed to have dipped into a number of cliche and convoluted plot devices found in a broad range of mystery novels to build it’s “story” on. If you know you know, and if you don’t then this point won’t leave you feeling as hollow as I did when I noticed.

To conclude, I want to use a word you don’t normally use to describe movies is this genre: it was fun. I had fun watching A Simple Favor.

From Emily’s enviable wardrobe to the quirky french musac used in the background. The trailer may suck you in but the characters and the plot keep you wanting more. Lively and Kendrick did a fantastic job with this movie, and it’s one I would recommend and watch again when it comes to the small screen.