The Movie: A Simple Favor
The Director: Paul Feig
The Cast: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Henry Golding, Andrew Moodie
The Story: A woman seeks to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of her best friend.
The Review:
Paul Feig has become known for his hit comedies like Bridesmaids and Heat so one would expect this movie to be heavy on the comedy as well and yes it is, but in a very different sort of way. This adaptation of the Darcey Bell's novel and is a very interesting mix of comedy and crime thriller. For the most part, the movie is played straight and most of the comedy comes from Anna Kendrick's just on the edge of being over the top performance as a slightly awkward yet powerfully determined single mom. The contrast between her and Lively's Bond girl like persona works perfectly as the characters play off each other's strengths and take advantage of each other's weaknesses.
As the two ladies go head to head in this Gone Girl like thriller, Henry Golding's character ends up as a sort of human pinball bouncing between the two female leads and he doesn't have much else to do except react. I felt like he was still his same character from Crazy Rich Asians but after taking some seriously unfortunate turns in life after what we see in that movie. It will be interesting to see if he can break out of that mold before Hollywood decides that all he can do is play the wealthy, English accented Asian guy.
Overall, this movie was entertaining but the sometimes excessively comedic elements almost made it seem like a parody of the crime thriller genre instead of standing on its own. Fortunately, Lively and Kendrick save the day with some of the best work I have ever seen from either of them. Go for the performances and enjoy the laughs but don't expect too much from a movie that isn't quite sure of what it wants to be.
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