''A Simple Favor'' is a 2018 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to discu ...

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

thriller film directed by

Paul Feig Paul Samuel Feig (; born September 17, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He is known for directing films starring frequent collaborator Melissa McCarthy, including '' Bridesmaids'' (2011), '' The Heat'' (2013), '' Spy'' (20 ...

from a screenplay by

Jessica Sharzer Jessica Sharzer (born October 26, 1972) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and editor. She is known for her work on the Showtime drama series ''The L Word'' and the FX horror series ''American Horror Story''. She wrote the screen ...

, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell. It stars Anna Kendrick,

Blake Lively Blake Ellender Lively ( Brown; born August 25, 1987) is an American actress. Born in Los Angeles, Lively is the daughter of actor Ernie Lively, and made her professional debut in his directorial project ''Sandman'' (1998). She starred as Brid ...

Henry Golding Henry Ewan Golding (born 5 February 1987) is a Malaysian-British actor and television host. Golding has been a presenter on BBC's ''The Travel Show'' since 2014. He is known for his film work, playing the role of Nick Young in ''Crazy Rich Asia ...

, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini,

Rupert Friend Rupert William Anthony Friend (born 9 October 1981) is an English actor. He first gained recognition for his roles in '' The Libertine'' (2004) and '' Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont'' (2005), both of which won him awards for best newcomer. He port ...

, and

Jean Smart Jean Elizabeth Smart (born September 13, 1951) is an American actress. After beginning her career in regional theater in the Pacific Northwest, she appeared on Broadway in 1981 as Marlene Dietrich in the biographical play '' Piaf''. Smart was ...

and follows a small-town

vlog A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded i ...

ger who tries to solve the disappearance of her elegant and mysterious friend. It was released in the United States on September 14, 2018, by

Lionsgate Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation, doing business as Lionsgate, is a Canadian-American entertainment company. It was formed by Frank Giustra on July 10, 1997, domiciled in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is currently headquartered ...

. Critics praised the plot twists, and the performances of Kendrick, Lively and Golding. It grossed $97 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. A sequel is in development, with Kendrick and Lively set to reprise their roles, and Feig returning to direct.

Plot

Widowed single mother Stephanie Smothers runs a

featuring crafts and recipes for parents. She becomes friends with Emily Nelson, the mother of her son's schoolmate and a PR director for a fashion company, and the two exchange confessions over martinis. Stephanie shares that as a teenager, she had sex with her half-brother Chris. Emily is frustrated by the lack of success of her husband, English professor Sean Townsend, and their (well-hidden) poor financial situation. Stephanie babysits Emily's son while Sean is in London. After two days of Emily not returning calls, Stephanie learns from Emily's boss, Dennis Nylon, that Emily is in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. Stephanie calls Sean, who contacts the police. Trying to get to the bottom of Emily's disappearance, Stephanie makes missing person flyers using a photo of Emily that she found hidden on her desk. Detective Summerville reports that Emily lied about flying to Miami, and that her drowned body had been discovered in the lake at a summer camp in Michigan. Stephanie and Sean share their grief and begin a sexual relationship. Summerville reveals to Stephanie that Emily had severe

liver damage Liver disease, or hepatic disease, is any of many diseases of the liver. If long-lasting it is termed chronic liver disease. Although the diseases differ in detail, liver diseases often have features in common. Signs and symptoms Some of the si ...

, a large amount of heroin in her system, and that Sean had recently taken out a $4 million life insurance on Emily. Stephanie receives an insulting message apparently from Emily about her tryst with her half-brother Chris. Stephanie recalls that her late husband suspected her infidelity and may have intentionally caused the car crash that killed both him and Chris. Investigating Emily's past, Stephanie meets Diana Hyland, who seems to have been a lover of Emily and who had painted a portrait of Emily. Diana says that the painting is actually of her

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

Claudia, whom she describes as a

con artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...

who disappeared. Diana's information leads Stephanie to a yearbook that shows Emily to be a girl named Hope McLanden, and who had an

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

named Faith McLanden. Stephanie visits Margaret, the mother of the twins, who explains that at age 16, the twins had set fire to the family house, killing their father. Meanwhile, while Stephanie is away on these investigative trips, Emily surprises Sean by reappearing, and tells him that she plans to collect the insurance money and leave the country. Stephanie later contrives to meet with Emily, and Emily explains that she and her sister indeed started the fire to kill their abusive father. The sisters fled separately with a plan to reunite later, but Faith didn't turn up as agreed. Emily then built a career and family but then, 14 years later, Faith reappeared. Now an alcoholic and heroin addict, Faith threatened to turn them both in to the authorities by confessing the patricide unless paid a million dollars by Emily. After assenting to the demand, Emily drowned Faith in the lake (as revealed to the movie audience), but Emily tells Stephanie that Faith committed suicide and that Sean planned the insurance scam. Emily and Stephanie are both angered by Sean's relationship with the other and decide to frame Sean for abusing Emily. Sean is arrested and released on bail. Stephanie has a change of heart and stages an argument with Sean in front of Emily in order to incriminate her while police-planted microphones are recording the meeting. Stephanie fakes shooting Sean. Emily, having predicted their ruse and disabled the microphones, confesses her crimes while holding the pair at gunpoint, saying that she will stage their murder-suicide. Shooting Sean in the shoulder, she turns the gun on Stephanie, who reveals that a hidden camera is livestreaming the entire event on her vlog. Emily attempts to escape, only to be hit by a car driven by Stephanie's friend Darren. She is arrested immediately after. Closing text says that Emily was sentenced to 20 years in prison; Sean's second novel was a bestseller and he became a successful professor at

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

; and that Stephanie is said to be dating another man, that her vlog has a million followers and is being developed as a TV show, and that she is a part-time

private detective A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

. In a mid-credits scene, Emily is seen winning a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

game in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

Cast

* Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers *

as Emily Nelson / Hope McLanden and Faith McLanden * Nicole Peters & Lauren Peters as Hope McLanden and Faith McLanden (16 years old) *

as Sean Townsend * Andrew Rannells as Darren * Linda Cardellini as Diana Hyland *

Dustin Milligan Dustin Wallace Milligan (born July 28, 1985) is a Canadian actor, known for his role as Ethan Ward on the teen drama television series '' 90210'' from 2008 until 2009, Tom Cummings in the Canadian spy thriller television series ''X Company'' from ...

as Chris *

as Margaret McLanden *

as Dennis Nylon *

Eric Johnson Eric Johnson may refer to: Music *Eric Johnson (guitarist) (born 1954) an American guitarist and recording artist * Eric D. Johnson (born 1976), member of multiple indie-rock bands including Fruit Bats, The Shins and Califone Politics * Eric Joh ...

as Davis Smothers * Bashir Salahuddin as Detective Summerville *

Aparna Nancherla Aparna Nancherla (born August 22, 1982) is an American comedian and actress of Indian descent. She has appeared on '' Inside Amy Schumer'' and has written for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell''. Nancherla ...

as Sona * Joshua Satine as Miles Smothers * Ian Ho as Nicky Nelson * Kelly McCormack as Stacy * Sarah Baker as Maryanne Chelkowsky *

Melissa O'Neil Melissa Crystal O'Neil (born July 12, 1988) is a Canadian actress and singer. In 2005, O'Neil won the third season of '' Canadian Idol'', the first Canadian female to have won. As an actress, she is known for her roles as Two / Rebecca / Portia ...

as Beth T.A. * Patti Harrison as Kiko *

Corinne Conley Corinne Alexandra Conley (born May 23, 1929) is an American actress who spent the majority of her career in Canada, notable for having won the Canadian Council of Authors and Artists' Best Actress Award. Conley is known for her voiceover work i ...

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

Production

Development

In January 2016, it was announced that

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

had bought the film rights to author Darcey Bell's novel '' A Simple Favor'' prior to the book's publication. The story was pitched as being similar to '' Gone Girl'' and'' The Girl on the Train''.

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

represented the movie rights in the deal with Fox.

Pre-production

In June 2017, it was announced that ''A Simple Favor'' would be extricated from 20th Century Fox and instead be distributed by

. It was also announced that it would be directed by

, with Anna Kendrick and

"in talks" for the lead roles. On July 26, 2017, Kendrick and Lively were confirmed, while

joined the cast as the husband of Lively's character. Linda Cardellini was announced as having been cast in an undisclosed role in September 2017, and Andrew Rannells,

, and

were later added.

Filming

''A Simple Favor'' commenced principal photography on August 14, 2017 in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. It was shot in the

Univisium Univisium (macaronic Latin for "unity of images") is a proposed universal film format created by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC and his son, Fabrizio, to unify all future theatrical and television films into one respective aspect r ...

2.00:1 aspect ratio on Panavision Millennium DXL 8K cameras.

Release

The film was released on September 14, 2018.

Marketing

On May 1, 2018, Blake Lively hid all pictures from her Instagram account to promote the film. The first teaser trailer was released on May 2, 2018, followed by the second teaser trailer, which was released on May 24.

Reception

Box office

''A Simple Favor'' grossed $53.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $44.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $97.6 million, against a production budget of $20 million. In the United States and Canada, it was released alongside ''

White Boy Rick ''White Boy Rick'' is a 2018 American crime drama film directed by Yann Demange and written by Andy Weiss, Logan Miller, and Noah Miller. The film stars Richie Merritt, Matthew McConaughey, Bel Powley, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry, ...

'', '' Unbroken: Path to Redemption'' and '' The Predator'', and was projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,102 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $5.9 million on its first day (including $900,000 from Thursday night previews) and $16.1 million over the weekend, finishing third, behind ''The Predator'' and '' The Nun''. It dropped just 35% in its second weekend, to $10.4 million, finishing second, behind newcomer ''

The House with a Clock in Its Walls ''The House with a Clock in Its Walls'' is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey. It is the first in the series of twelve novels featuring the fictional American boy Lewis Barnavelt. P ...

''.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "Twisty, twisted, and above all simply fun, ''A Simple Favor'' casts a stylish mommy noir spell strengthened by potent performances from Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a film ...

reported filmgoers gave it a 76% positive score. Amy Nicholson of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' wrote: "The film feels a lot like the Serge Gainsbourg

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

that Stephanie dances to in the kitchen: jazzy, a little sleazy, and worth a cult following."

Sequel

In May 2022, a sequel was announced, with Feig returning to direct the film, and Kendrick and Lively set to reprise their roles. Lionsgate will co-produce the film with

Amazon Studios Amazon Studios is an American television and film producer and distributor that is a subsidiary of Amazon. It specializes in developing television series and distributing and producing films. It was started in late 2010. Content is distributed th ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simple Favor, A 2018 black comedy films 2010s buddy comedy films 2010s comedy mystery films 2010s comedy thriller films 2010s female buddy films 2010s mystery thriller films American black comedy films American buddy comedy films American comedy mystery films American comedy thriller films American female buddy films American mystery thriller films Bron Studios films Films about interracial romance Films about missing people Films about twin sisters Films based on American crime novels Films based on American thriller novels Films based on mystery novels Films directed by Paul Feig Films produced by Paul Feig Films scored by Theodore Shapiro Films set in Connecticut Films set in Manhattan Films set in Michigan Films shot in Toronto Incest in film Lionsgate films Films about social media Patricide in fiction Sororicide in fiction 2018 crime thriller films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films