In Another Simple Favor Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively return to their characters from 2018’s mystery thriller about a mommy blogger and a glamorous, perhaps dangerous, new friend.
We catch up with their characters a few years after A Simple Favor, with Stephanie continuing her successful blogging career and branching into becoming a novelist, and Emily in prison for the double murder she committed.
It might be considered a spoiler to talk about where the story can possibly go in a sequel with one character behind bars for 20 years, and it would normally be worth the surprise to keep that secret close. It should feel like a clever, wonderful surprise with how the film pretzels itself into a solution to bring our characters back together, but the film hand waves it away in a manner that will repeat throughout the film. We all just want these characters back together and getting up to shenanigans again, don’t we folks? Who cares if it makes any sense how we get there? This pattern of illogical and sometimes bizarre developments progressing with barely any engagement or depth continues throughout the whole movie.
Another Simple Favor posits that it’s ok to be “hand wave: the movie” if you anchor it with enough charm and comedy in a beautiful location; and honestly, the film is mostly right. I found frequent funny moments and it is nice to see Lively and Kendrick bounding off each other. I can see many viewers and fans of the original just going along for a ride with a breezy pace and excellent chemistry between the actors.
That doesn’t change that no one behaves in a recognizably human manner, or that the central mystery isn’t enough to fully engage with or chew on (or even make sense). Yes the leads are excellent, yes there’s a wonderful ensemble surrounding them, and yes Paul Feig still directs comedic moments well. Unfortunately those things aren’t enough to elevate Another Simple Favor above the original, leaving us with a charming but ultimately disappointing sequel.
