“A Simple Favor” Review

The movie that was so disorganized it became ridiculously entertaining

“She’s an enigma my wife. You can get close to her, but you never quite reach her. She’s like a, beautiful ghost.” – Sean Townsend

Overview – SPOILERS beyond this point

It’s possible that “A Simple Favor” is the most creative movie ever written. It’s also possibly the most psychotic movie ever written, and those two things are absolutely not mutually exclusive. The movie has absolutely no idea what it wants to be – dramatic thriller, slapstick comedy, straight up pornography, or a witty and clever typical Anna Kendrick movie. The only reason it gets away with being literally all of these things is simply because of how stupidly entertaining it is. From the opening credits showing off Blake Lively’s ridiculously perfect wardrobe, the audience can’t even blink for fear of missing some insane detail.

The movie follows single mom Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) who strikes up a friendship with Emily (Blake Lively) after their sons become friends. The two have an odd friendship, which becomes even odder after Emily disappears, leaving her son (and husband) with Stephanie. When Emily turns up dead in a lake five days later, all hell breaks loose. Sean (Henry Golding), Emily’s husband, turns to Stephanie for emotional support and help raising his son. Sean and Stephanie, of course, wind up falling “in love”, only to find out Emily isn’t dead, but rather murdered her twin sister in order to collect on a massive life insurance policy that Sean took out on her after Stephanie mentioned she was basically living off of her dead husband’s policy money. Emily kills her sister so her son will have a better life with seven million dollars. The movie ultimately ends with Stephanie turning on Emily, who has been using her this whole time – Emily goes to jail, Sean gets shot, survives, and moves away with his son, and Stephanie’s vlog (which we’ve been hearing most of this story through), gets a ton of new followers.

I know. Woah.

Let’s unpack just a little of that, shall we?

Everything the movie got right – HIGHLIGHTS

• The RIDICULOUS relationship between Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick
• The RIDICULOUSly clever and sassy writing
• The RIDICULOUSly hot sex scenes
• The RIDICULOUSly fun plot
• The RIDICULOUSly awesome camera work

Everything the movie got wrong – LOWLIGHTS

• The RIDICULOUS relationship between Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick
• The RIDICULOUSly all over the place writing
• The RIDICULOUSly awkward-if-you-go-with-your-mom sex scenes
• The RIDICULOUSly confusing and convoluted plot
• The RIDICULOUSly unbelievable situations Anna Kendrick gets into

Rating

🙊🙊🙊🙊 4/5 SPEAKS!