There are several films that were released this weekend that I want to see. None of them got great reviews. So, my wife and I settled on A Simple Favor for our second weekend film. It was sitting at 7.5 on IMDb, which is slowly dropping. But it was far better than the 6 ratings that movie-goers are showing little enthusiasm for. I wasn't sure what to expect from this film, but the trailers had me intrigued. I would classify this film as a comedy suspense film. Not quite a suspense spoof, but funny.
Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) is a widowed single mom who "always has to keep her hands busy." She is the mom other moms despise. She doesn't work, living off her husband's insurance money, which runs out in 2020. Among her many endeavors is her vlog, where she teaches other moms helpful life hacks. Her son Miles (Joshua Satine) befriends Nicky Nelson (Ian Ho) whose mom is a powerful public relations director at a fashion designer. Emily Nelson (Blake Lively) has a lot of secrets, but Stephanie admires her power and maverick style. After a short friendship, Emily disappears, leaving Stephanie with her son. It doesn't take long for Stephanie to end up in Emily's bed with her has-been author husband Sean (Henry Golding). But everything is not as it may seem. Inconsistencies lead Stephanie on a mystery solving expedition to unravel Emily's twisted path. The answers she finds, with the help of her vlog subscribers, lead to an interesting battle of wits.
A Simple Favor comes from some rather unknown writers. The screenplay was adapted by Jessica Sharzer from the debut novel by Darcey Bell. While this was Bell's first work, Sharzer has done some other screenplays for both television and film, but I am unfamiliar with all of her work. The writing was decent, but a bit complex. The words convoluted and contrived come to mind. The story is decent, and I laughed quite a bit more than I expected to. I think some of the issues may have been related to time. Condensing a complex novel into a two hour film presents challenges. Having said that, squeezing everything together so tightly left little room for the pacing to lag. The film moves along at a brisk pace, but also requires close attention as little celluloid is wasted in delivering the twisty tale. The characters were interesting, all of them flawed, which gave them depth. But overall, it felt like this film tried to do too much. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit much at times.
Anna Kendrick was perfectly cast as the goody-two-shoes stay-at-home-mom in A Simple Favor. For this film to work, a lot hinged on her performance. Kendrick is completely credible as the I can do anything supermom who has a likable naivete. Blake Lively was equally brilliant as a cunning, sensual fashionista. I enjoyed Henry Golding's performance in Crazy Rich Asians, which is still playing at my local theater. The trio breathed life into their characters, each flawed and operating independently of the others. That was one of the aspects of this film I liked best. While far-fetched, the characters held it together to me. In large part, due to the performances. I also loved the soundtrack. Very chic.
A Simple Favor is a racy film. While there is no nudity, there are plenty of adult situations, a nude painting with a beaver's eye view, and plenty of adult themes. The film includes drug use, alcoholism, murder, violence and abandonment. The themes are not for young viewers and the complexity of the plot would likely lose younger viewers anyway. Although there is no nudity, I would probably start at teenagers or above. The MPAA saw this film as objectionable enough to earn an R rating. I don't find that a bit surprising. The film has a run time of one hour, 57 minutes.
I enjoyed A Simple Favor. It was a bit convoluted. The story was completely contrived. It felt like fifty pounds of potatoes stuffed into a ten pound bag. It was busy. The twisting plot required some attention and complete suspension of disbelief. I enjoyed the characters and found the laugh lines to be well constructed. The humor aspects of this film definitely added some dimension to the story. Kendrick is a great "straight man" and really helped hold the ends together. I have been debating where I land on the rating spectrum for this film, because I liked it more than the sum of its parts. So I am going to go a bit higher than I originally landed (7/10) and go with a 7.5/10. That also mirrors the current IMDb rating. It seems like a fair assessment of this film.
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