Paul Feig has built an entire career making movies that see women dominating the screen. With Ghostbusters to Bridesmaids and The Heat to Spy all featuring women in the main roles, it’s no surprise to see his latest film is also female led.
A Small Favour is Feig’s first film since Ghostbusters (perhaps the two-year break is the result of the tiring battering Ghostbustersreceived) and it marks a step from his raunchy comedies to something a tad darker.
A Simple Favour stars Anna Kendrick as busybody do-gooder Stephanie Smothers whose Duracell Bunny levels of energy makes the other parents look bad. Her son is friends with a boy from the same class, and from that Stephanie develops a friendship with Emily (Blake Lively). However, when Emily disappears, Stephanie attempts to find her reveal Emily’s hidden and mysterious past.
Even the most seemingly sweet person has a dark side, perhaps this explains Stephanie’s character of contradictions. Seemingly made awkward by the sight of a nude paintings and kinky handcuffs the fact that she holds a dark side makes her contradictory character ark a little unconvincing. Stephanie seems to flick between cutesy and awkward to dominant and hardcore in a way that’s not believable. The fault lies more in the way the character was written than Kendrick’s performance as a few pep talks from a confident friend is never enough to remove a lifetime of passiveness and weakness.
The fact that it’s hard to believe in Kendrick’s character makes it hard to believe in the film’s labyrinthian plot. Inspired by film noirs like Double Indemnity and other classic films like Les Diabolique Feig’s film plays like an old film noir set in the modern world. It even has a femme fatale (in the shape of Blake Lively) who instead of luring a man into a web of intrigue and lawlessness, it’s a woman. It’s an interesting way to turn the trope on its head, especially as the pair (Kendrick and Lively) share a good and effective chemistry.
The film does an impressive job at bouncing the viewer around as they try to work out who to trust. It does increase the tension in mostly surprise free mystery regarding who Emily is and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. It’s bright and funny opening isn’t matched by the darker parts of the plot. It feels as though the film could have been darker with a touch more blood and gore, but it’s obvious Paul Feig never once wanted to go down that route.
The 1960s French pop music makes for catchy soundtrack that sounds like it would fit perfectly in a casual crime caper like Catch Me if You Canand The Talented Mr Riley even if it’s at odds with something intended to show a darker, rather than raunchy, side of the director. However, the choice of music, which clashes with the modern setting, adds to the whole unrealistic feel of the movie. It’s as though it’s set in this fictionalised, non-existent part of America.
3/5
A Simple Favour
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