September 14, 2018 2 min to read

A Simple Favor

Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are tremendously funny, and make a great yin and yang pair in A Simple Favor.

by Zach Saul

Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is an over eager mother with a Vlog (video blog), a handful of cupcake recipes and very few friends. When she meets the vivacious, and mysterious Emily (Blake Lively), she’s immediately sucked into the fantasy that she too could live adventurously, and sip on martinis instead of volunteering. When Emily asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school and never returns to pick up her child, Stephanie slowly starts to realize Emily has a lot of secrets as she searches for answers.

Lively brings a lot of energy to A Simple Favor because of the way her character evolves over time, and the audience gets new information reshapes our opinion. However it was Kendrick’s transformation I found much more interesting, and unexpected. Stephanie’s search for answers is a ton of fun to watch because she’s driven not purely by shock and concern as you’d expect the leader of the PTA to be. Instead we see a bizarre primal jealousy appear for the life Emily lives. Alone in Emily’s house, Stephanie gives herself permission to listen to french music, drink during the day, and talk openly about her incestuous past. This freedom is tremendously exciting for Stephanie, and when the opportunity presented itself to fill the void Emily left in her own life when faking her death - Stephanie took it. Stephanie starts sleeping with Sean, (Emily’s husband played by Henry Golding) moves into her house, and even starts to wear Emily’s expensive clothes. As she discovers the darkest moments from Emily’s past, Stephanie’s moral grandstanding becomes more and more hypocritical and when it’s revealed Emily is still alive, all hell breaks loose.

Even though both of these characters felt a bit stereotypical, they were clearly constructed around what Kendrick and Lively do well - and in their elements, both actresses thrived. Once the twists start to rapidfire in the third act of A Simple Favor and we lose sight of who might be on whose side the movie shows some much-needed self-awareness. Lively and Kendrick are allowed to make light of their predicament, and are really funny on-screen together.

The Good: A Simple Favor is a lot funnier than you’d expect, and it’s aware of its own absurdity from start to finish. Despite being very funny, Feig is still serious when he needs to be and the reveals in the movie are surprising and filled with suspense. The movie’s best moments all stemmed from the playfulness Kendrick and Lively showed in their scenes together, most memorably when Lively accuses Kendrick of being a “brother-fucker”.

The Bad: The movie isn’t up to much philosophically, and while I found Stephanie’s inner conflict really interesting I admit that Emily’s behavior grew less compelling as the novelty wore off and I realizes she’s probably a sociopath of some kind. In a handful of moments I wish Emily has been creepier and darker, even though Lively’s humor worked in moments - it felt jaring in others. A Simple Favor is pretty content with being a popcorn-flick and getting a few “oohs” and “ahhs” from you.