Director Paul Feig swings...and misses
Everyone likes a mystery. From Sherlock Holmes to The Big Lebowski, most people enjoy trying to piece together a narrative, to solve some crime before the protagonist, to prove to themselves (or their significant other) that if things have just been slightly different they’d have been standing alongside Columbo waiting to ask “just one more thing” and wrap up the case with a wink and a cigar.
Thillers take that mystery one step farther, inserting an creeping sense of danger and darkness.
Both are popular genres because of the way they engage our brains and challenge our logic. At least, they are when they’re done well. Filmmakers like David Fincher are masters at this type of storytelling.
Films like Se7en and Zodiac, or more recently Gone Girl, are cerebral and complex, often leading audiences somewhere disturbing or shocking, but always keep audiences on the edge of their seats and transfixed by what happens onscreen.
Paul Feig, on the other hand, is not known for his thrillers. He’s mostly known for directing some of the better episodes of The Office, hitting a homerun with Bridesmaids, and completely misunderstanding Ghostbusters.
A Simple Favor is Feig’s attempt at directing a psychological thriller and he almost succeeds, at least in some respects. In others, though, he completely Feigs it up, particularly in terms of tone.
Tone is likely the most important part of a thriller. It’s not generally something that lends itself well to jokes. A Simple Favor is very much like Gone Girl—a beautiful, calculating mother (Blake Lively) disappears into the night, leaving behind her husband. In this case, she also leaves behind a young son, under the care of her best friend (Anna Kendrick).
Kendrick’s character Stephanie is a single mother living off the insurance money from her late husband, hoping to make a name for herself as a “mommy vlogger”—a slightly more wholesome Martha Stewart type who seems perfectly square in every way. Her involvement with Emily, the vanished, soon becomes deadly as Stephanie begins to unravel the dangerous truth.
On the surface, this all sounds good. And mostly, it’s played well and works. That is until Feig decides to throw in some obviously improvised scenes, hoping to catch some comedy magic that shifts the tone of the film entirely.
Clearly, Feig is going for something different, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He appears to love the thriller genre and genuinely want to make one of his own. However, he also wants to add his signature comedic touches to the story. It didn’t work for me.
At times, the film just seems bizarre. Feig makes choices that I frankly don’t understand, particularly in regards to the some of the backstory. Each of these girls have a past, but one makes complete sense in terms of the story being told while the other is out of left field and adds nothing to the narrative.
Performances are good, especially that of Blake Lively, who does a great job imbuing a sense of worldly danger into the character of Emily. Kendrick plays her usual affable self—quirky, goofy, sweet. My favorite part of the film was probably the French Pop soundtrack, but even that might have fit better with a quirky spy thriller as opposed to a Fincher-esque psychological one.
But the story, which in my estimation is the most important part of a film, is still pretty boilerplate. The addition of goofy jokes and improv do nothing to enhance it. By the time I realized what the twist was I had lost interest.
And yet, A Simple Favor has received mostly positive reviews. I’d imagine most moviegoers will be charmed by Kendrick and the rest of the cast, largely ignoring the more obvious problems. As such, I can’t say that it’s not worth your time.
There are worse ways to spend two hours (the Ghostbuster’s reboot comes to mind). Anyone that is looking for a light, goofy mystery will likely enjoy the film.
I do think the trailer sold it as more of a thriller and less of a comedy, which is why the film is so odd. It wants to be two things and doesn’t do either very well.