A Simple Favor
Original post date: 11 March 2019
Rating: ✭✭✰✰
The very beginning of this flick promises a return to old-school entertainment. For one thing, they actually run a bunch of credits at the start of the movie. Also, the music is cool with a fair helping of classic French pop by the likes of Françoise Hardy, France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. It has that widescreen Technicolor feel like those elegant spy or mystery movies from the 1960s. Quickly enough though, we are into 21st-century territory where irony is squeezed out of how dark and perverted American suburbs can be, how sunlight, modern architecture and children’s playdates are only a mask over the soul’s darkness. Think Desperate Housewives meets the late Stanley Donen’s Charade. Anna Kendrick’s Stephanie is a familiar type—the overachieving (single) mom who annoys all the other moms by being too perfect and who also has a video blog about cooking and crafts. Blake Lively’s Emily is her unlikely new best friend, a high-powered PR executive who delights in provoking and shocking and who mixes martinis with obsessive attention to detail. Next thing you know Emily’s gone missing and Stephanie goes into Nancy Drew mode while also comforting Emily’s hunky professor/author husband. We are primed for all sorts of twists and turns and reversals and revelations and, while we do get them, they are nowhere as gobsmacking as we might expect from director Paul Feig, who has successfully pushed boundaries in manic comedies like Bridesmaids and Spy. As Stephanie goes rummaging through Emily’s past, aside from some nice Gothic touches, there just isn’t that much surprising for this kind of movie. If the filmmaker is not going the rollercoaster route, then he should at least draw us in with emotionally involving characters, but they are all a bit too cartoonish to care too much about. If there is any satisfaction to be had, it is in seeing Kendrick’s character at least be a match for Lively’s rather than the usual woman in peril. Also, Stephanie has at least a few layers to her, thanks to a creepy backstory at odds with her chirpy suburban persona. Jessica Sharzer wrote the screenplay based on Darcey Bell’s novel. Andrew Moodie does a nice job as the oft-amused cop on the case. Jean Smart and Linda Cardellini play interesting characters who come and go all too quickly.
Rating: ✭✭✰✰
The very beginning of this flick promises a return to old-school entertainment. For one thing, they actually run a bunch of credits at the start of the movie. Also, the music is cool with a fair helping of classic French pop by the likes of Françoise Hardy, France Gall, Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. It has that widescreen Technicolor feel like those elegant spy or mystery movies from the 1960s. Quickly enough though, we are into 21st-century territory where irony is squeezed out of how dark and perverted American suburbs can be, how sunlight, modern architecture and children’s playdates are only a mask over the soul’s darkness. Think Desperate Housewives meets the late Stanley Donen’s Charade. Anna Kendrick’s Stephanie is a familiar type—the overachieving (single) mom who annoys all the other moms by being too perfect and who also has a video blog about cooking and crafts. Blake Lively’s Emily is her unlikely new best friend, a high-powered PR executive who delights in provoking and shocking and who mixes martinis with obsessive attention to detail. Next thing you know Emily’s gone missing and Stephanie goes into Nancy Drew mode while also comforting Emily’s hunky professor/author husband. We are primed for all sorts of twists and turns and reversals and revelations and, while we do get them, they are nowhere as gobsmacking as we might expect from director Paul Feig, who has successfully pushed boundaries in manic comedies like Bridesmaids and Spy. As Stephanie goes rummaging through Emily’s past, aside from some nice Gothic touches, there just isn’t that much surprising for this kind of movie. If the filmmaker is not going the rollercoaster route, then he should at least draw us in with emotionally involving characters, but they are all a bit too cartoonish to care too much about. If there is any satisfaction to be had, it is in seeing Kendrick’s character at least be a match for Lively’s rather than the usual woman in peril. Also, Stephanie has at least a few layers to her, thanks to a creepy backstory at odds with her chirpy suburban persona. Jessica Sharzer wrote the screenplay based on Darcey Bell’s novel. Andrew Moodie does a nice job as the oft-amused cop on the case. Jean Smart and Linda Cardellini play interesting characters who come and go all too quickly.
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