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Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively play best friends in the suburbs, including one missing, in Paul Feig's insolent neo-black.
After helping to redefine what women might look like, Paul Feig turns left with neo-black comedy A simple favor. A twisted tale of toxic feminine friendship, the film offers its share of pleasures: the beauty of the eyes, the clothing and real estate forms, as well as the undeniable flair of a director and performer who discovers pop entertainment. But the result leaves you with a rough head. The mystery is not how or why one of the main characters disappears halfway; that's what attracted Feig into the project to start.
If you squint hard enough, you can almost see it. Like any American filmmaker in action, Feig loves women: he gave us two glorious pranks for women, Bridesmaids and Spyand a solid The heat; his ghost hunters reboot did not work, but he was so filled with affection for his actresses that one was tempted to give him a "thought that counts". And in A simple favor, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively play leading roles, seductive stars that Feig gently guides through the swings and sudden jumps in the plot.
But the film never puts its aura of talented people trying to classify cheap hardware. Adapted by Jessica Sharzer (Nerve) of Darcey Bell's novel in 2017, A simple favor draws from a plethora of sources – Missing girl, Rebecca, Gaslight, Double Indemnity, Diabolical – some whose scenario is literally a namecheck; it is less a tribute or even a pastiche than a mixture of good business and various superior inspirations.
For the first 40 minutes or so, Feig works hard to put his mark on everything, an effort reinforced by Kendrick's reliable chronology as a Connecticut helicopter mother who befriends Lively's beautiful and nasty mom. . Yet despite some bursts of laughter and delicious touches (Rupert Friend as a bitch designer? Yes, thank you and thank you), the ironic tone and satirical targets are tired: something rotten in the suburban state The themes of motherhood have so far been unpacked, and the stories of life hidden, led by curious, but exhausted. Movies and TV series have gone, again and again, to Desperate housewives at Big Little Lies, Naughty moms and well beyond.
Maybe that's why A simple favor, in its second half, stop trying to draw the new comic juice from the story, instead of sticking to a fairly classic thriller model of missing person. Feig gives him luster and rhythm, but he can scarcely escape in terms of real surprise or sense of things.
Stephanie (Kendrick), a widow who raises Miles (Joshua Satine), a school-age son, is the kind of enthusiastic mother who volunteers for every role at every school event. including thieves of underused scenes Andrew Rannells and Aparna Nancheria). When she's not busy making everyone feel inadequate, Stephanie vlogs cries out to her "followers" of baked cookies and gaspacho.
Emily (Lively), whose son Nicky (Ian Ho) is in Miles' class, is the opposite of Stephanie: a glamorous career woman – she has a job in Manhattan – with a dashing husband, Sean (Henry Golding) . powerful effect that in Rich Asian boobies), and a parenting style that could be described as minimalist. When she invites Stephanie to have a drink one afternoon, Stephanie is practically traveling on her own. (One of the film's most thrilling ideas – if only shocking – is that the Cool Girl's appeal is eternal – the social dynamics of high school life survive long after high school.)
The two women begin to hang out regularly in Emily's modern and elegant mansion, descending martinis and exchanging secrets. Or rather, Emily expertly extracts Stephanie's big secret (and that's a nonsense), softening her voice and narrowing her eyes in a masterful simulation of sincerity; you understand why the prey falls into the trap of the predator.
These scenes are the most compelling, and not just because of the Sapphic subtext that says that with one kiss, Feig turns into text. The actresses make a funny couple, Lively's relaxed height brings out Kendrick's well-rounded nervousness. Emily is amused by Stephanie, and lit by the power she has on her, while Stephanie is just tickling her, this rebellious goddess gives her the time of day. We know that friendship is a sham but we want to see more.
Unfortunately, the film has other plans. One day, Emily calls Stephanie to ask for the "simple favor" of the title: take Nicky to school and watch him for a few hours. When Emily never comes back, Stephanie goes into detective mode, searching Emily's past and vlogging about her missing "best friend". She also becomes, much, much closer to Sean. Does Stephanie look more like Emily than her or us, he thought? Who was Emily, really, and was her life as fabulous as it looked? More relevantly, are we interested?
There is a lot going on from there – there's a corpse in a lake, a scary Christian night camp, Jean Smart in the middle of a madness and a stack of double crosses – but a throbbing feeling of "so what? the considerable gear behind and in front of the camera. Most striking is the fact that the film did not succeed in taking Stephanie's steps to bold foolishness, which demonstrates Feig's difficulty in transforming comic and black elements into a satisfying ensemble.
The director keeps things neat (DP John Schwartzman fills his frames of light and color, a visual counterpoint, if not totally original, the narrative malice) and sounds very chic (a lot of French pop). A simple favor also looks at a valid idea or two about contemporary feminine identity – how women are classified in roles that stifle their complexity. But the film never reaches that humorous and dangerous mix that it seems to be aiming for; one wonders what François Ozon or Pedro Almodovar could have done with this material.
That said, it's a testament to Feig's donations that, as for ghost hunters, the final impression is not that he was not up to the task – but that he was probably too strong for that.
A production Lionsgate / Feigco Entertainment
Director: Paul Feig
Actors: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Jean Smart, Ami Rupert, Eric Johnson, Dustin Milligan, Bashir Salahuddin, Joshua Satine
Scenario: Jessica Sharzer (based on Darcey Bell's novel)
Producers: Paul Feig, Jessie Henderson
Executive Producers: Mike Drake, Paris Kasidokostas Latsis, Jason Cloth
Director of Photography: John Schwartzman
Production Designer: Jefferson Sage
Publisher: Brent White
Costume Designer: Renee Ehrlich Kalfus
Music: Theodore Shapiro
Casting: Allison Jones, Ben Harris
116 minutes
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