The movie, A Simple Favor, is a relationship drama turned Hitchcock-esque “who-done-what.”
Quick Take: This is a comedic crime thriller built on high irony, perfect casting, excellent timing, and outrageously gorgeous fashion.
Its strengths are extremely witty dialogue interwoven through the unlikely friendship of an awkwardly peppy stay-at-home mom and an uber-stylish sharp-tongued working mom.
As soon as the opening music begins, you know A Simple Favor isn’t trying to be 2018’s Gone Girl. Before the end of the first spat of dialogue, you’ll be ready to thank screenwriter Jessica Sharzer for that.
It’s full of duplicitous twits revealed with just the right amount of wit and old-Hollywood flair to keep things sexy and interesting.
This film elevates its source material in unexpectedly humorous ways. It showcases Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick perfectly at every turn.
A Simple Favor is a film adaptation done very right.
Rating: 4.5 out 5
After seeing Director Paul Feig’s vision come to life on-screen, I wholeheartedly recommend seeing this film (especially if the book wasn’t exactly your thing).
The Women of A Simple Favor Just Work
I said it in the giveaway post for A Simple Favor, some books are just meant to be movies. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick make Stephanie and Emily more vibrant, interesting, and engaging than they ever were on the page.
The director, Paul Feig, builds this contemporary setting into a realistic backdrop – with a great supporting cast – in which these women thrive. And, whoever is in charge of location, set design, and wardrobe should be lauded and praised until the end of time.
When I read the book, I enjoyed the mystery but I didn’t like these women. Now don’t get me wrong, I recognized this type of woman. They exist. I just didn’t like these versions of them.
Something about how they were characterized, was very off-putting. I won’t lie, it pulled me out of the unfolding story a few times. It definitely made me want a different ending to the book. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil – it’s still worth the read.
But screenwriter Jessica Sharzer took these very stereotypical female archetypes, written into extremely stereotypical tropes and infused them with dimension, and depth. Then Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively brought these women to life and gave them flavor.
None of these things necessarily makes these women any more likable. A Simple Favor is one of those films that realizes – thankfully – that not all women need to be “nice” in order to work. These characters are, at times, seriously shady.
Stephanie
Stephanie’s a stay-at-home mom, bringing up her son in this small Connecticut community. She runs a mom-vlog and has a personality so sweet (in person and online) you can almost see her halo.
Stephanie is supermom. She volunteers for all-the-things at school, never fails to smile, and has enough pep in her step to exhaust the Energizer Bunny.
But, she keeps to herself despite how much she shares online. There’s just something about her that makes you think there’s more lurking behind that perky attitude and perma-smile.
Kendrick’s Stephanie is smart, savvy, yet grounded. She marches to her own beat and has her own personal style. She’s bright-eyed, inquisitive, yet comes off as genuine. As the film’s narrator, her portrayal and comedic timing kept the plot moving forward and the pace from ever really bogging down.
Emily
Emily is a career woman, mother, and wife. In that order.
She’s gritty, occasionally crass, driven, and single-minded. Emily never has time to volunteer at school, she’s often late picking up her son, and never misses her afternoon martini.
But there’s a kind of honesty in her brashness. Emily seems to share personal information easily despite being intensely private.
There’s something compelling in her disregard of polite civility that makes it difficult to turn her away.
Blake Lively’s Emily is a bitch-goddess. I mean that in the best way it can be. She fully embraces both her masculine and feminine energy in this role. The results are stunning.
Lively’s presents a truly glorious attitude that gives Emily edge and enviable sophistication that makes you want to see the outcome of it all.
From the first scene to the last, Stephanie and Emily are real women. They have faults, strengths, quirks, and secrets…lots and lots of secrets. Which all begin to unravel after Emily asks Stephanie to pick her son up from school and then inexplicably disappears.
A Simple Favor isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel (or the genre). The plot isn’t completely unpredictable but it’s also not an out-of-the-box surprise. So, Sharzer leans into (yes pun intended) stereotypes about stay-at-home moms v working moms for visuals, attitudes, and character development. And as starting points go, it’s brilliant.
This is a movie that never forgets that sometimes, it’s the all in the delivery.
