Blake Lively Is the Best Thing About the Silly Simple Favor
Summary
Last year’s soapy smash Big Little Lies taught viewers that nothing is creepier than helicopter parents in tony school districts. A Simple Favor, a nutty millennial mystery directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Ghostbusters), adds a few more cracks to that perfect facade. If A Simple Favor gave us more of Kendrick’s aw-shucks sarcasm and Lively’s surprising acidity, this might’ve been a dynamic comedy in the vein of Feig’s madcap Spy, which veered brilliantly between Melissa McCarthy’s self-deprecation and Miranda Hart’s cutting exasperation. But the movie aims to be a cheekier Vertigo, and even with a running time of almost two hours, it speeds too choppily through Stephanie’s detective work, relying instead on inelegant exposition. Stephanie does run into a couple of fun cutups along Emily’s paper trail, including Rupert Friend as a viperish fashion designer and the great Jean Smart boozing it up in an attic like a rejected suspect on HBO’s other recent gossipy thriller, Sharp Objects.