A Simple Favor

When directors find their stride with one genre that becomes their niche, there's always a good chance that their winning streak of quality with those projects will end up hitting a halting wall that comes crashing down. Those moments put those people in positions to try and gain the trust of audiences again by pulling off something unique that will make up for that failure. This brings us to Paul Feig, who surprised many with the hit comedy, Bridesmaids (which also launched Melissa McCarthy as mentioned in my Life of the Party review), and had a few other successes with The Heat and Spy before he got attention but for the wrong reasons with Ghostbusters (2016) since that not only bombed at the box office but polarized audiences and critics with its quality. It was difficult for him to shake it off so much that he spent some time producing a few 2017 movies...until his latest project premiered this past September that has been gathering social media buzz for the right reasons. A Simple Favor received a positive critical reception and has shown up on my radar out of the blue. Going in blind without having watch the trailers, I left the auditorium very surprised and impressed by this fun but dark thriller.

Plot: The story follow a single mother with a vlog who finds herself facing a mystery regarding her rich friend's disappearance. There's a surprising amount of uncertainty with this premise based on how the characters interaction. Playing on how not anything is what it seems on the outside, the limited information we know about each individual allows the twists to have a impact. The unknown can be felt with the tone as it takes on a dark comedy type where you don’t know whether something is just funny or intense (in a fun way). Some of the humor can sometimes get unnecessary and can interrupt on the flow of some serious moments. The twists here can get far fetched on paper near the end but nothing that ruins the flow and spirit of the plot. (I know that's not a lot of describe it but that's the limit of explaining without spoiling the film)

Characters: The people to focus on are Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and Emily (Blake Lively). Stephanie is a single mother/widow with a vlog whose knack for jumping into tasks finds herself taking on a mystery of Emily's disappearance. Anna is one of the acting MVP's who takes her normal innocent quirks she's associated with it and mixes it with some drama for great entertainment. Emily is Stephanie’s new rich friend and Sean’s wife with an eccentric and confident personality. Blake thrives in this role as she does some of her best work in a while with the contrasting her character has compared to Anna's. Whenever these two leading actresses are on-screen together, the chemistry playing between them is wonderful and enjoyable to watch. An honorable mention goes to Sean (Henry Golding) for his great performance and dynamic with the leading ladies (insert Crazy Rich Asians joke about him leaving Constance Wu for Blake Lively).

Overall Consensus: A Simple Favor shines bright through great cast performances, an intriguing mystery, entertaining chemistry, and wild plot developments. ⭑⭑⭑⭑🎟 Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes R

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You want to see a thriller that's similar to Gone Girl. You enjoy dark comedic tones that accompany a mystery to solve with misdirections to catch you off guard and rough backstories.

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You don't want to see a thriller that's similar to Gone Girl. You aren't a fan of dark comedies or rough character backstories.