My take with minor-ish spoilers on Paul Feig’s genre-mixing comedy thriller ‘A simple favor’ out in cinemas now.

Overall it’s a pretty enjoyable, engaging story which is reminiscent tonally of both Gone Girl and Game Night, while having its own subtle take on anxiety and the search for affinity and relevance in the social media age. It’s rather like what I’d expect a Hitchockian thriller to be like if he’d had the internet and post-modernism to play with.

If you want to go into the film utterly fresh of plot knowledge don’t read on. 

I headed to see A Simple Favor last Sunday on a spur of the moment decision –  Unusually I’d not used my Limitless Odeon card for the better part of a month and after hearing a positive plug for it from a DJ in the car ride home from the weekly shop, I felt it sounded sufficiently intriguing to give it ago, especially with the added bonus of it being directed by Paul Feig, of Freaks and Geeks fame, and starring Anna Kendrick who I really rate.

As a film you spend your first 20-25 minutes trying to get your head around the tone and the bluntness of the characterisation of Blake Lively’s character Emily who seems to effortlessly switch from endearing eccentricity and abundant irreverence to menacing enigma in the space of a few seconds at several points.

The premise is fairly straightforward – a widowed late twenties to early thirties stereotypical suburban mother whose main emotional outlet is volunteering and running a home tips for mums’ blog meets a ‘ball-breaking’ free-spirit-as-force-of-nature mother whom quickly has her under her thrall.

One of the most endearing, watchable elements of the film is Kendrick’s journey from naivety to shrewdness in the course of her dealings with Emily and a variety of other characters. Kendrick has great range as an actress and portrays a lonely, socially insecure, well intentioned mother called Stephanie with great poise.  A wonderful early character moment is her toe curlingly awkward attempts to cut loose by dancing to emulate her new friend’s behaviour while clearly being shocked by her overt sexuality and general directness.

They bond over ‘real Martinis’ – London style – and Stephanie’s character is constantly upbraided for her tendency to apologise, a trait that the libertine Stephanie has a zero tolerance attitude towards.

As Feig peels back both characters in the first 30 minutes we begin to realise there’s a lot more going on with both than initially meets the eye. Then we get the plot premise of the film – Emily’s sudden disappearance off the grid after asking Kendrick’s character to pick up her son for a few hours after school.

The plot then accelerates rapidly as Stephanie begins to delve into her friend’s past and realises she barely knows her at all, and that even her husband doesn’t really have a clue about where she’s come from.

The film is tonally diverse – it has a blackly comic spirit in some scenes that’s reminiscent of the Devil Wears Prada and Mean Girls. In others, it’s a much more psychologically charged film with a clear message that we may not know our friends as well as we think we do. The film uses comedy and a celebration of irreverence and style as a weapon of sorts, designed to throw the audience off in respect to the dark direction the film takes.

There’s also a strong neo-noir feel to the film. Like Game Night, a surprise hit starring the ever-entertaining Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman earlier this year, it is comfortable taking quite comedic actors to a dark gritty place in the course of spinning an engaging yarn.

The film also flips our assumptions about Kendrick’s character, Stephanie, on the head at a few points. We get a very strong initial tonal imprint of what her character is like that is thoroughly stood on its head as the story unfolds and we see she can make decisions that seem very out of character with the ‘mousy’ persona we were sold.

There’s really good, gripping performances from both Lively and Kendrick in this film and a reasonably solid supporting cast as well.

The other interesting thing about this film for me is the backdrop of the story playing out on social media through Stephanie’s updates on her home making Vlog for mums. As the story accentuates and the mystery of Emily’s disappearance deepens we see her blog take off and her confidence grow hugely.

The film is in part a commentary on contemporary society’s fascination with human interest stories and ‘characters’ on social media and a vivid demonstration of how getting a ‘break’ on social media can transform one’s life fortunes in very stark ways.

The film is arguably longer than it needs to be – and the final third in particular feels quite drawn out.  It’s more than a derivative of the mystery in suburbia tropes of Desperate Housewives in its early pomp. Nevertheless, it finds something vivid to add to the neo-noir genre and I’d recommend seeing this film.

 

 

 

 

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