KEITH on Reels

Directed by Paul Feig who is best known for comedies, including 2011’s Bridesmaids and 2016’s Ghostbusters, A Simple Favor is a terrifically entertaining film that perfectly blends elements of mystery and comedy and uses its many plot twists to effectively create a fun whodunit. The plot follows a chipper widowed housewife named Stephanie Smothers, played by Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick, who makes a video blog giving tips to mothers and develops a chance friendship with the stylish and beautiful Emily Nelson, played by Blake Lively, who works as a PR director for a well-known fashion designer. They meet each other through their elementary-aged sons, and Stephanie is immediately enchanted by the glamorous yet mysterious Emily who invites her over for drinks during the day at her expensive house in a Connecticut town outside New York City. After Emily asks Stephanie the seemingly simple favor of picking up her son from school, Emily disappears without a trace. The middle part of the film involves Stephanie along with Emily’s husband and English professor Sean, played by Henry Golding best known for his role in 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians, trying to figure out what happened to Emily and if and by whom she was murdered. At the same time, Sean and Stephanie begin to have a romantic relationship as they work closely together. With Stephanie discussing Emily’s disappearance and appealing for help to the followers of her video blog, she begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding her friend and quickly learns that not everything is as it appears and that Emily has several dark secrets from her past that may reveal why she disappeared. All of Stephanie’s detective work leads to the final scenes of the movie that reveal plot twists on top of plot twists, quite effectively shocking and surprising the audience to a thrilling degree. Overall, I found it to be one of those rare movies that makes for a gripping and wonderfully twisty good time; the film very much reminds me of a less dark and more funny version of the brilliant 2014 thriller Gone Girl that was also full of mystery and a surprise ending.