Sunday, November 24, 2019

A Simple Favor

Movie Name: A Simple Favor
Year of Release: 2018
Director: Paul Feig
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Linda Cardellini, Dustin Milligan, Andrew Rannells, Jean Smart, Rupert Friend, Sarah Baker, Roger Dunn, Bashir Salahuddin, Lauren Peters, Nicole Peters, Ian ho, Joshua Satine, Eric Johnson
Genre: Crime, Drama, Comedy
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
View Trailer

Synopsis and Review:
Director Paul Feig followed his version of "Ghostbusters" with a tonal difference in genre, with the adaptation of the book by Darcey Bell, which favors more of a thriller than the previous (and successful) comedic endeavors of his career. The film follows the story of a young widowed mother, Stephanie, who lives in Connecticut, living off from the insurance money her late husband left for her and their son. While picking her son from school, she meets Emily, a beautiful and sophisticated woman, mother to a friend of her son's, who works in the city, lives in a stunning house, and whose husband is a professor at a nearby college. Emily quickly creates a friendship with the eager and helpful Stephanie, and the relationship sails on, until Emily suddenly disappears. Her disappearance forces Stephanie to start poking around, but events take a darker turn when Emily's body is found in the bottom of a lake. While mourning her passing, Stephanie and Sean, the widower, become intimate and a relationship blossoms. However much to Stephanie's surprise, events start occurring that suggest that Emily may not be dead after all.
She embarks on a journey to find out who Emily actually was and what actually happened to her.
"A Simple Favor" marks a tonal shift in direction for Paul Feig. Whereas "Spy" and "Ghostbusters" were markedly solid comedies, this feature goes for a thriller type of approach. It has a bit of Hitchcock in it, though the result reminds at times what Damian Harris did with "Deceived" (a Goldie Hawn vehicle from 1991), some of Joseph Ruben's efforts from the early 90s (for instance, "Sleeping with the Enemy") and even Yves Simoneau's "Mother's Boys" (a vehicle for Jamie Lee Curtis which premiered in 1993). That is to say, this film has a bit of a saucy thriller aspect to it, showcasing these different women, with interesting pasts, coming together, and how eventually one of them weaves a web of deception in order to get ahead (a la Bob Rafelson's "Black Widow"). This relationship, filled with complicity, but also seduction, is what makes the film have some extra interest. Sadly that is quickly discarded in detriment of the pulpier side of the narrative, with the unveiling of the dark secrets that were held by the fascinating and captivating Emily (though the whole wearing a suit and a cane prop for that character, is a bit too on the nose). Anna Kendrick is wonderful as the wholesome mother who has been by herself and who is dazzled by this new friend, whereas Blake Lively while lovely to look at, barely registers as someone with a personality. It's a film that tries to inject some comedy moments into some predictable thriller archetypes, but it's a film that needed a slightly different point of view, with further edge. Forgettable.

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