Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor is a highly addictive noirish “thriller” with pitch perfect performances from its cast, comic undertones that are classic Feig, which all add up to a delightfully divine moviegoing experience.
Anna Kendrick is Stephanie, a lonely suburban Connecticut single mother who operates a vlog and is “that mom” who volunteers for everything in her son’s first grade classroom. Emily (Blake Lively) exits her Porsche 911 one stylishly rainy afternoon after school and it is if Stephanie has witnessed everything she needs from a friendly confidant.
Helping things is the fact that their sons are best buds and desperately want a play date on this particular day. Emily invites everyone over, meticulously made martinis are served and two moms become fast friends.
Days later, Emily disappears, and things get divinely dark in a hurry. Yet, that Feig humor is firmly laced throughout—keeping the tone incredibly light. It is a fine needle to thread, what with the landscape of a story that features a missing person. In the hands of the Bridesmaids and Spy helmer, it appears effortless.
A Simple Favor is exquisitely crafted from all creative corners.
Its bodacious brilliance commences with a tightly toned Jessica Sharzer script (based on the novel by Darcey Bell). The cinematography of John Schwartzman is so stellar, it gives us a palette ripe for visual spectrum-spanning emotive enhancements of everything from the story itself to the performances and all those juicy twists and turns. Enriching the entire experience is the exquisite score from Theodore Shapiro that marries beautifully with the editing of Brent White.
Under the direction of Feig, the electric ensemble shines—particularly Lively. It seems now, in hindsight, the dramatic muscle she spotlighted in The Shallows is merely the tip of the iceberg of her titanic talent. The clinic she puts on in A Simple Favor mirrors the majesty of major league pitcher with a vast toolbox of pitches to keep batters in a state of continual confusion. She throws curves that have us thinking we have answers where honestly lie more questions. Her fastballs has one ducking for cover and change-ups that will audiences wondering which side is up at any given instance. She is the key to this sublimely conceived story working and using one more baseball reference—Lively hits a grand slam. Sure, the camera adores her. But, with this performance, the layers of her characterization aptitude have us ready to be first in line to witness whatever she does next.
Kendrick has never been afforded the opportunity to show off this much of a multifaceted side of her thespian gifts in one cinematic journey as the actress gets to with her latest. We get to bask in her being bitingly brazen, quietly demure and self-deprecatingly amusing. Stephanie is a role she was born to play. Kendrick’s chemistry with Lively is tremendous and dare we say, fresh. The two thrive as the other’s volley partner. Theirs is a complex screen friendship that defines the entire film. The Pitch Perfect veteran has earned accolades before. For example, her Oscar nominated turn in Up in the Air. Yet, there is something so commanding about her Stephanie that supremely impresses beyond what we have seen collectively from her prior.
In a compelling complimentary role of Emily’s husband Sean, Crazy Rich Asians standout Henry Golding shows a side of his talent pool that is quite deep. The actor has crafted a character that has us ever-guessing where his motivations and allegiances begin and end.
This delicious joy of a movie, above all else, spotlights a filmmaker who is as chameleon-ish as Daniel Day Lewis is to acting. The best directors effortlessly segue through all genres. The same artist who had us falling out of our seats laughing as a slew of Bridesmaids got food poisoning, found us overcome with laughs and gaffs as Melissa McCarthy tried life as a Spy has now grabbed us by the lapels as we furiously attempt to figure out what happened to Emily in A Simple Favor.
Grade: A-