Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Movies, Prime, Review | Tagged: another simple favor, blake lively, paul feig

Another Simple Favor Review: A Tangled Mess of a Mystery

Another Simple Favor wants to be just as captivating as the first film, but it feels like the younger sister who is desperately trying to emulate the effortless grace of her older sister.

Another Simple Favor is so focused on adding twist after twist to the story that it ends up twisting itself into an incomprehensible knot where nearly all of the magic that made the first film work is lost.

Director: Paul Feig
Summary: Stephanie Smothers and Emily Nelson reunite on the island of Capri, Italy for Emily's extravagant wedding to a rich Italian businessman, which is interrupted by murder and betrayal.

Another Simple Favor Twists Itself Into Unnecessary Knots

A Simple Favor is one of those films that didn't exactly have a great box office presence, but it gained a following when it was released on streaming and as the years went on. There were a lot of things to like about the film, from the style to the story and the performances from the cast. It wasn't exactly high art or a mystery for the ages, but it was a good time at the movies. When they announced a sequel, people were excited but a little nervous. The first one was an adaptation of a book; this new film was based solely on new material, which doesn't always work out well. We had a lot of returning players, so could Another Simple Favor work as well as the first film? Maybe it could have if it wasn't trying so hard to be clever, but everything becomes a giant mess in an attempt to recapture the mystery of Emily from the first film. And it's made worse by the fact that, by the end, you're left wholly unsatisfied with the explanation for what was going on and why.

Right off the bat, people had a lot to say about the fashion in the first film, specifically the suits that Emily (Blake Lively) would wear. While the fashion is all over the place in Another Simple Favor, they made it a bit too extreme at times. The thing about couture fashion is that it really only works in a couple of different settings, like a runway, a red carpet, or a photoshoot. Au-couture pieces often push the very boundaries of what fashion is; they are art and completely impractical for anyone to wear. While Emily's dress is that level of audacious, she looks odd and out of place walking around and trying to make pieces that were made for the runway work in a real-world setting. The pieces that the team created or brought out are beautiful, the touch of red on Emily's wedding dress was genius, but they become distracting in a movie with plenty of distractions already.

This is, at its core, a mystery, so getting into its details would involve varying degrees of spoilers. However, the first film was twisty in the sense that we found out that Emily wasn't who she said she was. We found out about her twin sister and how Emily faked her death, and all of that worked pretty well. The twists and mysteries of Another Simple Favor are all over the place and often make little sense. There is a reveal much later on that seems like it was only made so they could make a specific joke that wasn't funny. There are multiple added layers to why Emily asked Stephanie to be there that didn't need to be there, to the point that it feels disrespectful. It's a mess, and if they had stopped trying to be clever, there was the nugget of a good idea here. The first film was twisty, but it wasn't complicated. This one is twisty and complicated and not nearly good enough at tying up the loose ends in a satisfying way.

A Beautifully Shot Movie Can't Overcome A Messy Script

The cast does the best with the roles they have been given. Anna Kendrick plays a much more assertive version of her character from the first film, but she also goes on the same character arc in Another Simple Favor, at least emotionally. She does a pretty good job of trying to make this whole mess work, but there's only so much mess the talent can try to fix. This movie asks a lot of Lively, and she's not the right actress for it. She was great in the first film, but is out of her depth in this one. The dynamic between these two characters and what made people like the first film work is lost halfway through, and the film is the worst for it.

Allison Janney is clearly having the time of her life as Emily's long-lost Aunt, but she's so painfully underwritten that her motivations make no sense even when they are explained. Everyone else, including the various male love interests, makes no impact whatsoever. Henry Golding's Sean has apparently completely changed personalities, and Michele Morrone as Dante, Emily's fiancé, is one-note in a way that only gets worse as we learn more about him. Elena Sofia Ricci, Emily's soon-to-be mother-in-law, somehow understood the assignment but also felt like she had stepped in from a completely different film. Director Paul Feig knows how to shoot a beautiful movie, but the problems here are not with his directing, but with the script, and no amount of beautiful scenery can fix that.

Another Simple Favor really wants to be just as captivating as the first film, but it feels like the younger sister who is desperately trying to emulate the effortless grace of her older sister. She's doing similar things, making similar moves, but she needs to make them bigger, better, and more to make sure everyone notices. However, in an attempt to be a bigger and better version of her older sister, she is just a poor impression with too many added bits and bobs. Buried within the endless twists, there was a good idea for a sequel here, if everyone involved stopped feeling like they had to justify this film's existence. It makes for a bland viewing experience that you'll watch and forget about, instead of one that sticks in the back of your brain like the first one did.

Another Simple Favor

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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4/10

Another Simple Favor is so focused on adding twist after twist to the story that it ends up twisting itself into an incomprehensible knot where nearly all of the magic that made the first film work is lost.

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