A Simple Favor (2018)

Film: A Simple Favor (2018)
Stars: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Rupert Friend, Jean Smart
Director: Paul Feig
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars (I don't do half-stars, but if I did this would round up to one, but I couldn't quite call this a 4-star)

Contrary to popular opinion, I do, in fact, like film comedies, but modern cinematic comedies tend to, well, be relatively stupid and oftentimes don't have a lot to say.  I'm not going to name names of actors who continually phone in the same performance, with diminishing returns (and frequently there wasn't that much to begin with), but you know the types.  They're big stars for a few years, and then they peter out because their one trick was all they had to say (occasionally they are big enough stars that they get to prove themselves in independents or get multi-film contracts on Netflix making movies no one could name the names of but somehow still get millions of clicks...okay, I may have mentioned a name by process of elimination there).  But I am thankful for people who consistently make interesting comedies and do them well, and few directors working today can pull that off like Paul Feig.  From Bridesmaids to Spy to the recent reboot of Ghostbusters, Feig is consistently funny and frequently makes my favorite comedy of the year in most year-end wrap-ups this decade.  So I gave him a blank slate on A Simple Favor, a ticket without any reservations or even looking at the reviews, despite this being considerably darker and seemingly out-of-his-comfort-zone.  What resulted was me once again being glad I'd bet on Feig, but in a different way than I had initially anticipated in a sleek, darkly comic take on the Gone Girl-style novels.

(Spoilers Ahead) A Simple Favor is about Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick), a seemingly-perfect single mom who runs a "mommy vlog" where she gets so-so views and seems to have the sort of existence where she's nice to everyone, but no one really likes her save her son.  Her son's best friend wants to have a play date with him, but his mother, the elusive Emily (Lively) seems resistant to spend time with Stephanie, as she's her polar opposite; overly confident, blunt because she can be (Lively has never been more smoking, which is critical to making this character land as unattractive people couldn't get away with the way she treats the people around her), she doesn't suffer fools and also, oddly enough, doesn't seem to have any friends outside her family.  The two bond during the play dates, with Emily clearly taking advantage of Stephanie's kindness and willingness to watch her son, and then one day Emily disappears, leaving Stephanie to talk about their odd friendship & in the process gain millions more viewers on her vlog, all-the-while trying to figure out what happened to her "friend" Emily.

Anyone who has seen Gone Girl or its multiple copycats in recent years knows what's about to happen and that Emily is clearly alive.  The film's strengths are not from its many twists, most of which are easy to figure out.  It's weird, because plot is never where Feig gains his strengths, but instead its in his casting, as well as the sharp dialogue and his very brisk direction.  Even some of the more sordid story details (like the incest subplot between Stephanie and her brother, where it's somewhat implied her son is the product of an affair she was having with her half-brother, rather than with her husband), is only shocking for a few moments and the remaining reveals in that storyline are easy-to-connect.  No, it's in the actual tautness of the dialogue and Feig's ability to put strong female performances at the film's center where we get the best parts of the movie.

Kendrick has been, in my opinion, coasting a bit on her quick wit and charm as an actor since becoming a marquee name with Pitch Perfect, not going much below-the-surface as a performer, so I was surprised how much I admired (and not just enjoyed) her work here.  Stephanie is a creation that's hard to pull off, as you need her to be both intensely likable but also clearly someone you'd make fun of in real life.  She also has to have a believable transformation from bored-housewife-with-a-terrible-secret to an unusual private detective who uses her own skills to solve this case.  Lively, who unlike Kendrick I am not a past fan of, has never been better as Emily.  She's funny, spry, sexy, and manages to combine just a hint-of-malice with the difficult trick of also clearly liking Stephanie, and appreciating the fact that for the first time in her adult life, she has an actual friend.  The plot of the film is so predictable (a bigger flaw in a thriller than a straight-up comedy) it stops this film from being a classic (Spy remains Feig's best picture), but the two lead performers are aces, and this is well worth your time, and likely will be a perfect rainy afternoon-style movie on USA for years to come (I mean that as a high compliment).