2018's A Simple Favor saw Paul Feig, a director best known for female-centred comedies like Bridesmaids, The Heat and the Ghostbusters reboot, adapt a straight-faced mystery novel by author Darcey Bell. The result was an unmitigated disaster, with Feig completely out of his depth in the territory of Hitchcock and de Palma. It had a promising opening act, leaning into the comic chemistry of its leading ladies Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick before taking an about turn into hackneyed thriller territory, with a particular eye-rolling plot twist.
This sequel dispenses with any pretence of being a serious thriller. On paper that sounds like a wise move, but there's very little comedy on offer here, and it unwisely keeps its leads apart for the bulk of the movie, failing to learn from the mistake of its predecessor.
The first movie climaxed with a coda revealing that Kendrick's mommy blogger Stephanie had become a private detective, having exposed Emily's (Lively) faking of her own death by killing her twin sister. Another Simple Favor picks up years later with Stephanie having just published a book detailing the Emily case, and lo and behold, who turns up at her book launch but Emily herself. Wait, isn't she in prison for murder? Well, she's been let out on parole. How? Why? Shush. Somehow this comes as a shock to Stephanie, who seems like she would have heard about the woman who is only, you know, the subject of her bloody book getting an unlikely release from prison.
Presumably because Feig fancied an all expenses paid Mediterranean holiday, the action relocates from suburban Connecticut to the island of Capri, where Emily is to be wed to mafioso Dante (Michele Morrone). Emily invites Stephanie, who figures why not travel to another country with the one person on the planet who wants to cause her the most harm. Once in Capri, the bodies start piling up and Stephanie is forced to put her sleuthing to work as she tries to figure out if Emily is the killer or the target.
Inspired no doubt by the success of Kenneth Branagh's Agatha Christie adaptations and Rian Johnson's Glass Onion mysteries, Another Simple Favor is essentially an extended Murder She Wrote episode, though it takes the entire length of an MSW episode for the plot to finally kick in. Feig and screenwriters Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis spend an age introducing a roster of eccentric characters who are largely defined by their extravagant outfits (if nothing else, Feig's film might serve as porn for fashionistas). Only Henry Golding as Emily's ex-husband Sean, now a snarky drunk, makes any comic impact, but his screen time is sadly short-lived. Kendrick and Lively briefly rekindle their Golden Globe hosting audition shtick early on, only for the movie to keep them apart for most of the running time.
If you thought the plot twist of A Simple Favor was hoary, you'll be throwing rotten fruit at your TV when Another Simple Favor shows its hand. The most memorable thing about the first movie was how it dropped a revelation of incest which it proceeded to gloss over. The sequel is somehow even more distasteful, with another disturbing case of incest, this time non-consensual, and a subplot concerning a CSA ring, two subjects that have no right rearing their ugly heads in such a lightweight comedy.
Another Simple Favor doesn't work as a thriller because it relies on clichés and Feig is incapable of crafting tension or suspense. It doesn't work as a comedy because despite boasting a talented cast well capable of delivering comic performances, it's working from a script devoid of wit and overly reliant on tiresome stereotypes like the Italian mobster, the gay best friend and the sassy plus-size black woman. The only laugh in Another Simple Favor is the unintentional one that arises when we flashback to Emily's birth, which appears to take place in the 1960s. Just how old does Feig think Blake Lively is?
Another Simple Favor is on Prime Video.
Directed by: Paul Feig
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Michele Morrone, Elizabeth Perkins, Allison Janney
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