If I believed a single moment or character in this twisty suburban neo-noir, I might have been able to enjoy it more. But A Simple Favor arrives wearing its insincerity on its sleeve, keying you in to the fact that deception lies in each frame and line of dialogue. You’d have to work extremely hard to be duped, in other words, and being duped should be part of the fun. Anna Kendrick stars as a mommy vlogger who befriends Blake Lively’s fellow mom, a glamorous, hard-drinking fashion executive with a mysterious past and a troubled marriage (Henry Golding, of Crazy Rich Asians, plays her struggling writer husband). The plot thickens to mush after Lively’s character disappears. Kendrick does her thing (she’s once again a snapping turtle encased in a perky shell) and Lively certainly seems to be having fun, but no one is enjoying themselves as much as the outrageous outfits. A Simple Favor namechecks two classic thrillers that were also female-driven—Gaslight and Diabolique—but both of those had characters and narratives that sucked you into the respective schemes. This is noir as costume party. Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy) and written by Jessica Sharzer, based on a novel by Darcey Bell.
