A Simple Favor Review

Based on a novel by Darcey Bell A Simple Favor is the latest film to capitalise on the rise of psychological thrillers as another small American town suffers another missing persons case.

Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) is a single mum and a vlogger, a nerd who wears clothing with cats on them, overly eager to volunteer for school activities and basically a teacher’s pet. When her son befriends another boy, Stephanie befriends the boy’s mother, Emily (Blake Lively), a glamorous PR executive and has a mirror opposite personality. Stephanie babysits Nicky (Ian Ho), Emily’s son but disappears one night leading Stephanie trying to figure out what happened to her friend.

The book was billed in the vein of Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train and the trailer said it showed the dark side of Paul Feig. Like those novels turned films A Simple Favor is set in a small town in America, this time in Connecticut where an attractive woman disappears leading to an ordinary person becoming involved with the investigation, discover dark secrets about the victim and reveals dark secrets of their own.

Feig is a director who I’ve found to be overrated comedy director and I personally can’t fathom why his films are so critically acclaimed. Audience scores are nowhere near as high as the Rotten Tomatoes scores. I freely admit that my option would be biased against A Simple Favor. His previous film was the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters which flopped hard and he enraged nerd audiences because he painted all critics as sexist – and ironically it’s his best comedy because the 12A rating forced Feig to tone down his love for crude humour.

A Simple Favor borrows a lot of story ideas from Gone Girl, being a twisty thriller with a comedic edge and a missing person who is far from being an angel. However, Feig is no David Fincher. A Simple Favor was tonally erratic and leaned too heavily towards the comedy – Fincher was able to balance out the comedy with the darker elements. A Simple Favor was a film that had ideas involving incest, grief, infidelity, and substance abuse but Feig and his writer, Jessica Sharzer felt the need to add awkward and uncomfortable comedy.

Gone Girl also had a lot of substances regarding trial by media in the US, elevating that film. The character of Emily was more overt than Amy in Gone Girl, at least in the first third because Emily openly drinks during the middle of the day, wears over-the-top clothing and the other parents know she is a woman who takes no-prisoners whilst Amy seemed like the perfect wife.  Stephanie was more like Carey Wilson’s character in Gone Girl, someone the femme fatale character befriends so they could be a useful idiot.

Feig worked a $20 million budget, much lower than his previous film and it was properly mostly spent on the cast’s wages. A Simple Favor started off with stylish opening credit that featured a French version of the song ‘Chick Habit’ and when Stephanie visits a decaying house it gave the film a gothic feel. But the film was mostly flat and limited and like many film adaptations of psychological thrillers, A Simple Favor could have been made for TV. The story mostly takes place in Emily’s home which is hardly cinematic and these types of story are made for TV around the world so it is hard for any of them to stand out.

A Simple Favor has been praised by critics for its numerous twists but I personally saw many of them coming way before the reveal. Feig and Sharzer made some changes from the novel, especially the ending. And the ending was utterly terrible, it came across as a farce and a parody as it becomes more over-the-top as characters one-upmanship. The producers of Hollyoaks would watch it and think it’s too much.

Feig also couldn’t help himself by showing one of his tropes – that supposing characters are assholes. There is a Greek chorus of parents (Andrew Rannells, Kelly McCormack, and Aparna Nancherla) who enjoy the Stephanie and Emily drama and unfazed when a woman disappears, the fashion house that Emily worked at and a police detective (Bashir Salahuddin) who liked to ogle Stephanie. It was grating.

Feig wants to see more female representation in film and the best feature of A Simple Favor was its casting. Kendrick and Lively are fine actresses and they had a great rapport as the dorky yet adorable young woman and the glamorous lady who is able to get Stephanie out of her shell. They had the comedic timing and chemistry and along with Kendrick awkwardness made the film’s humour to work. Henry Golding has had an incredible year, he already starred in Crazy Rich Asians and he had a major role in A Simple Favor where he gave a perfectly strong performance as Emily’s husband.

A Simple Favor did little to change my opinion about Paul Feig or the psychological thriller sub-genre. Whilst it has the film has its moment it is a minor thriller that wasn’t sure what tone it wanted to go for.