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'Another Simple Favor' Movie Review: Blake Lively Trades Her Florals For Murders and Martinis
Paul Feig returns with a sequel for his hit 2018 movie, but this time, it's anything but simple.
Director: Paul Feig
Writers: Jessica Sharzer, Laeta Kalogridis, Darcey Bell
Cast: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Michele Morrone, Henry Golding
Streaming on: Amazon Prime Video
Language: English
Just when Blake Lively seemed to have navigated her way out of a very floral, very public debacle — and just when people had finally begun to move past the frenzy of screenshots shared between her and Justin Baldoni — came an Instagram post announcing a sequel to 2018’s A Simple Favor.
It was official. A new movie. Perhaps, another press tour. And, despite her choice to abandon the florals this time, the chaos remained firmly intact.
The original A Simple Favor was built around a favour that really was simple — the mundane, chaotic woes of motherhood. One murder, a cheating husband and several dry martinis later, it was all neatly — if a little strangely — wrapped up.
In this second outing (spoiler alert) however, we get a mix of evil twins, a higher dose of incest, the Italian mafia, a closeted romance, an odd variety of drugs; almost like the martinis you find at a nightclub — the type that are expected to leave you with a lasting hangover.
Where the first film was wholly rooted in motherhood, its joys, struggles and unexpected friendships, this sequel seems to forget the kids altogether. One child is kicked out of camp, another is held at gunpoint, and neither mother seems overly concerned.
Directed by Paul Feig, it opens with a tired live-streamed 'vlog' (can we retire that format already?) where Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) gives her viewers a quirky backstory on how she ended up under arrest in Capri. However, she's lost all the innocence she was characterised by in the previous film, and is now rather comfortable being in the centre of all chaos.
Emily Nelson or ‘Hope’ (Blake Lively) makes her grand re-entry crashing Stephanie’s book reading, asking the latter to be maid of honour at her upcoming wedding. She’s wearing a striped jumpsuit, with spiked heels and a chain belt, a nod to her time in prison. Naturally, they arrive in a matte-black private jet, complete with monogrammed everything.
And Stephanie, ever the wide-eyed optimist, wonders who her enigmatic friend has entangled herself with this time. She’s still more worried about getting footage for her vlog channel, than she is of losing her life.
Enter Dante Versano — if the name itself wasn’t a dead giveaway, he’s the mafia mob boss who freed Nelson from prison and is marrying her on a remote Italian island. Played by Michele Morrone (looking like he walked straight off the 365 Days set), he has viewers half-expecting him to smoulder at Emily and whisper, “Are you lost, baby girl?”
But this is roughly the point in the film where all logic goes to die — and where you'll probably need your first martini to carry on.
Well, what’s an Italian mob wedding without an over-the-top villainous mother-in-law, or “monster-in-law" who looks like she’s walked straight out of a Dolce & Gabbana fever dream, a furious ex-husband, a rival gang member, and the arrival of not one but two long-lost relatives?
The background score adds a slightly humorous spin on the subject, while the costume design ties the eccentricity of the plot together (Thanks, Renée Ehrlich Kalfus). Special mention must go to Lively’s costumes — her striking white bridal gown, complete with a veil streaked in red, perfectly foreshadows the bloodshed to come. Equally unforgettable is her giant hat as she goes sleuthing, and also her black widow ensemble, which drew audible gasps from the audience.
The murders by themselves are not very exciting — an injection in the shower, death by fireworks, a public stabbing — and neither is the chase. When the mafia is chasing Lively and Kendrick, they manage to escape in a pastel-blue Vespa and even have enough time to catch up on the way.
The sibling dynamics reach a whole new level of complicated with an unnecessary dose of incest added in. As expected, Kendrick’s character is caught in its crossfire and blamed for crimes she didn’t commit. She manages to solve them (turns out, all that was needed was a quick chat with Nelson’s mom, played by Elizabeth Perkins) and finds her way back to being friends with Nelson.
All in all, Another Simple Favor is chaotic, absurd and strangely fun — like a martini that's been left out too long but you drink it anyway. It trades the sharp wit and suburban satire of the first film for a wild, often nonsensical Italian fever dream. Thankfully, Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick's chemistry remains strong, even when the plot runs off the rails. Just don't expect the nuanced charm of the original — because this time, the favour is anything but simple.
The film will premiere exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on May 1.