Holly Engel
Staff Writer
Psychological thrillers have always intrigued me more than action flicks, but so many of the films that come out these days are filled with explosions and machine guns, not the twists and turns confined to the mind. So, when I saw the somewhat noir-style trailer for “A Simple Favor,” a comedy thriller that was released Sept. 14, I had to go.
The plot follows Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), a vlogger mom who befriends the fashionable and enigmatic Emily Nelson (Blake Lively), mother of her first-grader’s new friend. When Emily mysteriously disappears after asking Stephanie to pick up her son from school, Stephanie begins a search that uncovers Emily’s past layer by layer, realizing that her friend’s past is as black as smoke.
Though I would not call this movie particularly suspenseful, the numerous plot twists and dark humor intertwine to form a particularly intriguing web of events. Did Emily’s husband, Sean (Henry Golding), murder her to get her insurance money, or did Emily disappear of her own accord? Who really was Emily? Most of her truths were jaded lies at best, and watching her manipulate the other characters is wonderful in its dramatic irony.
In fact, the ever-changing developments in the characters’ relationships with one another and in the characters’ psychologies was quite entertaining, especially as Stephanie emerged from sugar-sweet and innocent to sharp-witted with secrets of her own. The main complaint that I have is that each person fit the stereotypical thriller roles — the secretive woman, the possible suspect husband, the unlikely investigator — which occasionally caused their actions to be predictable.
Predictability also tinged the rest of the film, and, at some points, I wondered why it took Stephanie so long to find out things that I guessed in a few minutes. This might be because I’ve seen and read a lot of thrillers and am familiar with the general tropes, but there are ways to use those tropes so they do not seem as cliché. In part, the film did succeed in this by way of small twists and surprises to up the drama. When the audience started to become comfortable with one thing, we were spun around in the face of another murky clue.
I actually didn’t realize that this movie was also a comedy until about five hours ago when I looked at IMDB’s website. There had been some funny moments, but none that stuck out to me saying, “COMEDY!” Now some things make a lot more sense, especially the scene at the end (don’t worry, no spoilers) that seemed pretty random and cheesy to me, an interruption to some great intensity. The rest of the humor I did enjoy, and I thought it contrasted nicely with the sinister turns of mind and action in the rest of the film.
Overall, if you like mayhem, mystery and manipulation, then see this movie. It’s definitely intriguing, and the movie theater is only 15 minutes away. I just ask you one simple favor: don’t get your tickets too late.