A Simple Favor

I’m so glad we chose to see A Simple Favor last night. What a crazy movie! I can’t remember the last time I’ve had so much fun watching a story advance on screen. I’m amazed that I managed to remain seated and (relatively) quiet during the showing. The urge to launch into a running dialogue with the movie was almost overwhelming. Watching this, you kind of feel like a participant in the show, like the movie is just begging you to yell out things like, “What are you doing?” and “What is she possibly thinking?” It’s so consistently engaging, outrageous, hilarious, baffling, and, above all else, fun. And it’s all held together by a pitch-perfect performance from Anna Kendrick. Honestly, I think A Simple Favor is destined to become a cult classic. It’s a perfect vehicle for drinking games, comedic commentary, interactive shenanigans. The whole thing is a zany delight to experience, entertaining to the end.

The Good:
My whole family loves Anna Kendrick’s version of “Cups,” and I’ve always enjoyed her work in the past, but I’ve never been exactly a fan. From my point of view, she’s pleasant, has a good singing voice, and it’s fine if she’s there, but (no offense) I’m not gonna miss her when she’s gone.

Here, however, her work is magnificent, revelatory. It is honestly Kendrick’s superb turn as single parent/Mommy vloger Stephanie Smothers that carries the movie and drives the plot. (I mean, yes, Emily is the one who’s missing, but she would basically just stay that way if Stephanie minded her own business.)

Kendrick is so convincing as this character. She gets great lines, of course. Jessica Sharzer’s sharp script gives her wonderful dialogue that’s perfect and funny, but it’s Kendrick’s thorough inhabiting of the character and impeccable comic timing that really sell Stephanie Smothers.

The trailer for the film is extremely misleading. Yes, yes, A Simple Favor is a thriller and a mystery, but it’s also a comedy. After the end credits rolled, my husband aptly noted that the fantastic, catchy soundtrack in the movie does so much to set the tone. Set to a different soundtrack, he suggested, the story would seem eerie, tense, creepy, frightening. But the music we get instead makes the movie wacky and fun, even in moments of high peril. His comment made me remember that the trailer does, in fact, use creepier music and does, therefore, seem creepier (and more generic and less interesting). 

I’d say that the editing makes a big difference in this regard, too. A Simple Favor may be telling a genuinely suspenseful story about a crime, but it’s edited like a comedy. Funny moments are punctuated for us so that we are sure to feel the joke and carry its energy with us as each scene unfolds and transitions to the next. So all that hype about Paul Feig directing–gasp!–a thriller is somewhat misleading. Paul Feig usually makes comedies, and that’s what he made this time, too.

Tonally, this film reminds me a little bit of Drop Dead Gorgeous, except it’s not quite as silly. It’s not a spoof. It isn’t making fun of the whole thing. Instead, it’s making the whole thing fun.

Some of its underlying premises are quite a scream, though. I laughed to myself when I got home and realized that the sociopath is the most predictable character. You just never know what those crazy empaths are liable to do!

Honestly, I feel Kendrick’s character is worthy of academic study. (You could have a whole symposium about this character if you wanted!) I identified with her a bit since people often size me up incorrectly based on externals (that don’t matter as far as I’m concerned).  I remember absolutely shocking a friend in college when she first caught a glimpse of my actual personality.  I mean, I’m shy, guarded even, and my mother usually picked out my clothes (less work for me, more time to focus on things that mattered), so at a glance, you didn’t get the real me at all.   Stephanie absolutely masks herself in meek politeness.  (I also say I’m sorry all the time, a habit I’ve never been able to break.  But I’ll be honest, I haven’t tried to break it very hard.  When people tell me I should stop apologizing, my unspoken response is more in line with the attitude of Blake Lively’s Emily.)  Anna Kendrick’s character is probably the easiest for most women to identify with because she’s the safe one.  Ostensibly most of her initial quirks are socially conditioned responses, desirable in the polite female.  We’re all told constantly that we should act like this, and also just as constantly that we should not act like this.  We can all relate to the superficial aspects of her character.

If the Oscars made sense, comedic work like this would be taken seriously, and Kendrick’s performance might get some recognition. Awards shows are really predictable, though. In another year, I do think Kendrick would have a shot at a Golden Globe, but with the crazy way the categories work at the Globes, surely Lady Gaga has Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy all sewn up. (How can it be possible to know the winner before even seeing the performance? Seems like it shouldn’t be, but trust me on this one.)

Blake Lively is also fantastic as Emily. I was honestly surprised, which says more about me than Lively.  Even though I kept putting Gossip Girl in our Netflix queue (way back when they still sent DVDs), I never got to watch it. I’m not good at watching TV. (This week, I’ve just been watching the Spiderman game, The Dragon Prince, and Blaze and the Monster Machines.)  Prior to this, I’ve remembered Lively mainly for her work in The Green Lantern. (She was okay in The Town, too.) Nobody should be remembered mainly for her work in The Green Lantern. That’s just not fair.

I was actually surprised by what a compelling, commanding force Lively is in this film. I loved her performance, too. She’s in the movie less than Kendrick, but she makes the most of every bit of screentime.  Often very funny and always quite captivating as Emily, she’s a better actress than I knew. I definitely had a false impression of her range and talent. She needs more roles like this.

And Henry Golding gets much, much more to do here than in Crazy, Rich Asians (in which his character was more a handsome catalyst than a dynamic player). I hope he continues showing up in big movies. He’s definitely good at playing the handsome husband who somehow lacks the agency to react appropriately to acts of evil within his family.

And it’s really great to see Linda Cardellini, Rupert Friend, and Jean Smart in small (but critical and often amusing) roles.

For such a crazy movie (with tons of third act plot twists sometimes soap-opera-esque in their sheer audacity), A Simple Favor tells a well conceived story with characters complex enough to make me consider reading the book. The film seems to have quite a lot to say about being a mom, and being a woman, and being a vlogger, and being more than what you appear.

Best Scene:
All of Stephanie and Emily’s “playdate” interactions are cinema gold. Kendrick and Lively have amazing chemistry.

Best Action Sequence:
Watching Stephanie sneak around in her scarf is captivating, nail-biting, exasperating, and immensely entertaining.

Best Scene Visually:
I love the moment when Stephanie returns to the closet. The car crash is also good.

Best Joke:

For a thriller, A Simple Favor is screamingly funny.  The first half is funnier, but for some reason, there’s this reaction to nail art late in the film that cracked me up more than anything else.

The Negatives:
The longer I’m away from it, the more I feel this film is a character study of someone deeply disturbed, a crazy person if you want to be glib about it. But the crazy person is really not who you think.

So often during movie, I wanted to yell at the screen. My big question at the end was, “Why?” Basically that’s the question of the movie. It can be reasonably asked by the audience in practically every scene.

Also, I will give no spoilers, but there is one aspect of the ending that does not make sense to me. I’m not sure that we’re being told the entire truth about something, but if we are, it means that honestly much of what happens is so unnecessary given that one action was merely an opportunistic embrace of convenient circumstances rather than an insidious, premeditated scheme. If certain actions actually did occur in the order we are told…I can’t really be sure, but I think one character is the crazier and more troublesome here, and I’m not so sure it’s the one you might think.

I realize that sounds vague and convoluted, but I don’t want to spoil the movie. I can’t tell if one person happens to be transgressive or is selected because of that transgressive nature, but if we believe what the movie shows us, I lean strongly toward the former.

I’ve thought of so many hilarious (to me) alternate titles to this movie, but they would give too much away.

This would be a really great film to use in the classroom to discuss the construction of narrative or why point of view matters. I feel like here instead of an unreliable narrator, we have one who is just a little bit too reliable, a little bit OCD when it comes to demonstrating reliability.

You know what? I’ve thought of a great alternate title for the film that doesn’t give anything away. This Is Why You Don’t Have Friends.

Some of the third act violence seems unwarranted, but possibly, that’s intended to be thought provoking. I found myself wondering, “Why is this presented as something we should be cheering about?”  But to be fair to the film, I believe it is intended to provoke such questions, even if after the fact.

A Simple Favor works better as comedy than suspense, but ultimately it’s a smart movie, kind of a mash-up of a 1950 classic film and a Gillian Flynn page-turner. I assume we’re intended to explore the subtext on our own time.

Overall:
Watching A Simple Favor was so much fun. I’d love to see it again. If you’re looking to brighten up your weekend by killing time at a movie you’ll actually enjoy, this one will definitely do the trick. Blake Lively gives a killer performance as Emily, and Anna Kendrick’s star turn is really something special.  Let’s face it, if you don’t see the movie, you’ll never find out what happened to Emily because I’m not going to tell you.  Can you live with that decision?