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A Simple Favor

Paul Feig has done a lot to redefine the representations of women in film especially in relation to the comedy genre, but A Simple Favor takes a drastic departure from his usual style. While the film has a charming set-up, the neo-noir-comedy is ultimately underwhelming and leaves the viewer feeling like they may have missed something.

However, the viewers aren’t the ones at fault here, instead Feig in his role of director does little to
capitalise on the obvious talent of the two female stars – Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively.

Stars Couldn’t Save Weak Material

While gorgeous and clever on paper, the film never loses the feeling of talented people attempting
to save weak material.

Drawing inspiration from several hits such as Gone Girl, Double Indemnity, and Diabolique to name
just a few, A Simple Favour feels more like a flimsy mash-up of superior writing as opposed to
homage.

While Feig seems to be in control of the direction of the movie for the first 40 minutes, the cheeky
tone quickly becomes tired. Kendrick and Lively however do their best to bring something interesting
to their roles: a Connecticut control-freak mom befriends a mean-girl mom, but it all feels so been
there, done that.

A Predictable Rehashing

While Feig usually injects satire into his films with ease and grace, the basic storyline of A Simple
Favor is something we’ve all seen before time and time again – there’s something rotten behind the
perfect exterior of these suburban moms, which as it turns out is far less exciting than horse racing
betting.


From Desperate Housewives to Big Little Lies and The Stepford Wives, the film does little to separate
itself from the cliché and doesn’t even do this trope well.

This fact is made even more jarring by the fact that one of the moms go missing halfway through the
film and suddenly the viewer is flung into a tired missing-person template.

While Feig manages to bring pace to this curveball, the film’s sense of purpose is lost and there are
few rabbits
left to be pulled out of the proverbial hat.

Helicopter Mom vs Mean Girl Mom

Kendrick plays Stephanie, a widow raising a young son, the kind of mom who with almost stressed
out
maniacal enthusiasm volunteers for every role at every school event. Enter Lively playing Emily,
an elegant career woman whose parenting style can best be described as almost non-existent and
the two become fast friends.

Emily with all the grace of a black widow carefully ensnares the innocent Stephanie and deftly
exercises power over her, while Stephanie is just happy to be there. While we all know the
friendship is a complete sham, we are hooked and then the film loses all semblance of poise.

Emily asks Stephanie for ‘a simple favour’ – to watch her son for a few hours – but Emily never
returns and suddenly Stephanie is transformed into a modern-day Nancy Drew. She edges closer to
Emily’s gorgeous husband in her search for the ‘truth’, but is Stephanie not as innocent as we first
thought? More importantly, do we care? Regrettably the answer is no.

 

About the DVD:
© David Nusair