A Simple Favor

Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively,

Henry Golding

"We all have Secrets to Hide"

The film starts with Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) recording her parenting vlog where she also mentions that her best friend Emily (Blake Lively) has been missing for several days. Then it pans to how Stephanie and Emily became the best of friends.

Emily and Stephanie are contrasting figures yet they somehow click with their young sons as their common factor. Single parent Stephanie is a typical Suburban blogger mom, a know it all who lives off the life insurance of her dead husband, while Emily is a glamorous PR person for a designer and married to Sean Townsend (Henry Golding) a British who travels a lot.

The 'disappearance' of Emily is an integral part of the film. In trying to solve it, Stephanie unearthed betrayals, secrets, revelations, revenge and murder - all enough to spiral terribly out of control with the use of her vlog as a vital tool.

All these twists and turns come at a controllable pace, some easy to grasp while others need some figuring out, even as the complex characters need to come up for oxygen every now and then to maintain balance. The setting are suburban chic and modern bungalows, a quaint lake side town which all contribute to a stylish film noir atmosphere. 

The cast do well especially Anna Kendrick as the self effacing Stephanie who does have a secret or two buried in her own murky past. Blake Lively is fashionable as always and can hold her own against the very talented Anna Kendrick. As to Henry Golding, well he is still va va voom!

Overall, it was just an okay mix match of drama, thriller with light comedy. Nothing extraordinary yet not just ordinary either, if that makes sense.

The Wife

Glenn Close, Jonathan Pryce

Christian Slater, Harry Lloyd, Annie Starke

"Secrets lie behind the Lines"

I desperately needed another movie to activate my brain cells to get over Keanu Reeves' irritating gurgling sounds in Destination Wedding. Boy, did my brain cells work on overtime from seeing Glenn Close in The Wife. 

Joan Castleman (Glenn Close) is the the faithful wife of Joseph Castleman (Jonathan Pryce) a writer who was just informed,  he won the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Stockholm then becomes the locale where their seemingly perfect marriage reveal some cracks which start to fizzle their stable bond. 

Joan is the obedient wife, always anticipating her husband's needs from making sure he takes his pills on time to signaling him when he has something on his beard. They are a good tandem as Joe revels from all the attention while Joan stays in the background. The film establishes right away that the Castlemans are a solid couple. Joseph is egotistical almost to the point of being righteously critical while Joan passively and diligently does her duties as expected of her.

The movie also interjects flashbacks - how they first met, his flirty behavior towards members of the opposite sex to their struggles as his writing career slowly succeeds. These scenes reveal a lot about the personality of the characters, how their past molded them to be the people we see now in Stockholm. The dramatic flares intensify midway, where a somewhat predictable revelation implodes then leads to the climatic conclusion. 

Glenn Close is a true artist. In a pivotal scene where Joan reaches her boiling point - her facial expressions, her body language, her range and her bravura - was flawless. A very good defining moment for the long suffering, neglected wife. Jonathan Pryce was equally a good sparing partner, so to speak. His contemptuous and complex character was not entirely beyond reproach, he did have a few redeeming qualities so it wasn't a total lost of a human being. 

The film offers good insights about married life, infidelity, moral values and humanity. Over and above the film's shortcomings, I recommend it for Glenn Close's stellar performance as Joan Castleman, The Wife.

Destination Wedding (2018)

Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves

"Check your Baggage"

Frank (Keanu Reeves) and Lindsay (Winona Ryder), two strangers on their way to a destination wedding collide with each other through constant bickering over anything and everything. 

Frank is the brother of the groom, while Lindsay was the ex-gf of the groom even though they both don't seem to be close to either of the marrying couple. It is never explained why Frank and Lindsay were invited, at all. Always bitter and highly egotistical, these two strangers have a lot more in common than they care to admit to themselves and to each other. 

"Before Sunrise" - it is definitely NOT even though it seems to copy the Richard Linklater masterpiece. This is the most dialogue I have seen Keanu Reeves deliver in his entire career. Heh. While Winona Ryder has aged well and tries her best to keep up with the pacing of both the dialogue of Keanu as well as the slow progress of the story line. She gets an A+ for her effort. I can only cringe at the thought of poor Winona putting up with Keanu's character irritating  and really disgusting gurgling sounds. Oy!

The setting of the film in wine county is lovely and certainly didn't add any of its charm to this highly disappointing reunion of Ryder and Reeves. Perhaps in some distant future, they can get together in an action film instead of a trying hard 'intellectual' romantic comedy.