Friday, November 30, 2018

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.

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