Certainly, this is a movie to divide opinions and to leave you wondering if you missed something while you simply blinked. Starred by Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding, written by Jessica Scharzer and directed by Paul Feig, the film is a mix of comedy, drama, thriller and crime, and I assure you that you can feel every part of it.
Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) is a widow who raises her only child in a comfortable house in Connecticut and her only source of entertainment is her vlog channel on the internet, focused on recipes and homemade tips. The woman has an ordinary life, showing herself as a mother example in her son’s elementary school. However, when she meets Emily Nelson (Blake Lively), who shows herself as a mystery figure since the beginning, her behavior starts to change a little bit.
Image Source: IMDb
It was clear right from the beginning that Stephanie spent plenty of time mourning for the death of her husband and decided to dedicate herself solely to her child. When she and Emily get closer to each other, the puzzling woman changes Stephanie’s life forever. At first, they have a lot of fun together, tell each other dirty and hidden secrets, share glasses of Martini and laugh. However, one day the blonde and enigmatic woman asks Smothers to do “a simple favor”, and never comes back.
During the movie, we realize that Emily saw on Stephanie a naive girl, who she thought she could use to get whatever she wanted. The vlogger, on the other hand, showed herself smarter than everyone thought she could be (the audience included). We discover that Stephanie can also be evil and manipulative when someone messes up with her, and that is just one of the aspects that shocks the spectator. The movie is surely a box of surprises. The plot turns upside down quite enough to leave you bewildered, considering that each scene brings a different revelation.
Image Source: IMDb
It is also important to mention the brilliant characters’ development. As Stephanie and Emily, Sean (Henry Golding) also transforms himself from an awkward and flat personality to one that was fundamental to the story as Emily’s husband, since he is very flexible, and it is impossible to know what side he is on until the end of the film.
Though my friends didn’t like A Simple Favor that much, I would still recommend it because I think it is worth giving a shot. It is definitely different from everything I’ve ever seen, the cast is amazing and besides being confusing, it’s a puzzling catcher story.