Review: A Simple Favor
Go in to A Simple Favor knowing nothing, and you’ll have the delight of the movie taking you down a path most films don’t or won’t. Director Paul Feig lets you know in the credit sequence, all 60s graphics and French pop, that this little adventure you’re on is going to be more of a trip: colorful, snappy, just foreign enough to be intriguing, and like a college girl returned from a year abroad, just foreign enough to be smackable.
The story here is of over-achieving mommy vlogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and her new but intense friendship with the fabulous, devil-may-care Emily (Blake Lively), mother to an equally adorable 1st grade classmate of Stephanie’s son. Play dates and drinks ensue, and so do boundary crossings, and more.
As I enjoyed knowing little, I’ll give you no more except a recommendation to give this a try. I missed out on Gossip Girl, so Blake Lively here is a revelation. Stunning in her costumey suits, chewing lines that could have gone cheesy, sexy and toying, she is both the polar opposite of the chirpy Kendrick and a great foil for her. These mothers both may initially come across as over-the-top characters, but sit back and have fun as you discover, Stephanie and Emily are just that, too much, but stuck in their own lives. Which, no spoiler, are about to change.
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A former ABC National, Dallas and Atlanta radio personality, Martina O'Boyle is now making movies and covering culture in London, Dublin, and as far in Europe as the cheapie flights will take her, for Pop Culture Beast.