A Simple Favor (Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively)

[harlequinade]

This is a delight, such an enjoyable movie and Lively was outstanding

 

[moviedoors]

I was very disappointed by this flick. I thought Blake Lively's character was basically a bully from frame one. She's good in the role, but I don't like the character, and I think we're supposed to be charmed by her, but I was nothing but off-put. Anna Kendrick's character starts great and then majorly goes off the rails. The reveals and the "twists" are turgid and predictable. And the tone: what even is this movie? It has no idea what it's trying to be. Is it a serious thriller? A broad comedy? A meta-farce? And what, ultimately, was the point of that one icky backstory? It ultimately didn't seem to matter outside of giving someone a crude nickname.

 

[scarlet-witch]

Anna Kendrick's character starts great and then majorly goes off the rails. .

This was my biggest issue. I liked the film overall, but Anna Kendrick was chewing scenery by the end of it and it was just too much. She needed someone to tell her to tone it down.

 

[harlequinade]

Kendrick is never believable to me as a human being but she fit this because it was so outrageous and satirical

 

[jolldan]

I would say I really enjoyed about two third's of this movie there were a few things that really took me out of it though. So going to do 3 things I did like and 3 that I didn't.


Things I Liked

1. Blake Lively, got to admit the only thing I had seen her in was The Shallows and wow was this a major step up. Honestly for that first hour I really had no idea where they were going with her character in a good way she could have turned out to be anything from a ****ty mom to Russian spy in my mind. Definitely the stand out performance for me.
2. Anna Kendrick's goofy mom persona. Excluding the final act she was really fun and I personally know a few mums like her who are a little dorky but just great with there kids.
3. The initial exchanges between Kendrick & Lively after she is supposedly dead. The phone call, the refilling of the wardrobe and the messages she passed through Miles all left you feeling uneasy about what could be coming next.

Things I Didn't Like

1. Stephanie & Sean banging at funeral, im sorry I know its a movie but Christ on a bike did this feel unnatural and in the movie you could tell I wasn't the only one. Nobody is banging there best friends husband hours after they've just planted there last wife and your supposed best friend. Put up a "1 Month Later" title card first anything but that.
2. Kendrick's character becomes more and more unlikeable as the movie goes on. I don't know if this was by design but the more we learn about Stephanie the less I sympathise with the character. She sleeps with Sean, we find out she's banged her brother (im sorry that was just weird), led her husband on even though its heavily implied that she knew the son was not his and continued to be affectionate toward him leading to both there deaths. Seriously by the end I was rooting for Sean lol.
3. The Finale. Maybe it was just me but the tone felt overall the place in this scene, I don't know if it was trying to be a thriller or a comedy. I mean its a dumb little detail but the dad we see getting busted by the swat team stoned of his ass then somehow he's the one leading the charge to take down Emily just felt ridiculous.

 

[kguillou]

Finally saw this and I liked it a lot. Blake Lively's charisma made the movie, she was a blast to watch and you could tell she had a ton of fun with the character. I have to say though I was a TAD disappointed as a fan of the book (which is much darker and more complex) that Feig took a much more simple, comedic approach to the plot and changed some key things from the book which I thought made the book memorable. The book's ending for example is much darker, much more noir than the movie's tidy, happy ending.

That said, I had a good time with this.

 

[Stringer]

It started out with potential (especially with Blake's performance) but then got ridiculous yet predictable, and just plain dumb in the end. The way Blake Lively was "stopped" at the end was some garbage right out of a late 90's comedy.

 

[terry78]

It was kinda like a satire.

 

[Pennywise]

‘A Simple Favor’ Sequel Set; Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Paul Feig Returning – Deadline

 

[Pennywise]

 

[kguillou]

Huh. I felt like this was such a one and done type story but ok, i loved the first story and the book too.