Part of the fun of 2018’s A Simple Favor was that it could’ve been just another Gone Girl knockoff, one of many, but it was just too quirky to be that. Everyone was just a bit left of center, and that included seemingly naive mommy vlogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), who proved to be so much more resourceful and devious when she needed to be. Perhaps she was learning a thing or two from her new friend, the chic and enigmatic Emily (Blake Lively), who had all of the maternal instincts of a praying mantis and just as deadly. They both felt like characters that had wandered in from different movies, especially Emily with her magazine cover looks and fashion sense making her appear like an A-list celebrity slumming it with the normies. Another Simple Favor takes all of the soapy charms and eccentricities of its predecessor and cranks them up to 11, in an Italian villa with the mafia, ex-husbands, wacko siblings, and of course, murder, lurking around every corner. It’s more, A LOT more, and even when it goes off the rails it’s so enjoyable to watch the wreck unfold.
Mirroring her debut in the first movie, Emily reenters Stephanie’s life as if she’s striding down the catwalk. Only this time she’s not joining the other parents in dropping the kids off for school; she’s crashing Stephanie’s poorly attended book reading. Naturally, Emily looks fabulous in a striped number, complete with chainlink belt, that looks like it cost more than the entire book store and everybody in it. She doesn’t look like someone who was imprisoned for killing her father and twin sister, and shooting her ex-husband Sean (Henry Golding), and that’s because she’s not. She’s free on appeal, thanks to high-powered attorneys paid for by her…wait for it…fiance Dante Versano (Michele Morrone), a mafia son with all of the entanglements that come with being in the mob.
Emily being Emily, she rather strenuously asks Stephanie to be her Maid of Honor, which is weird because didn’t Stephanie ruin her life and then write a book about the whole thing? Stephanie has every right to be suspicious that maybe this is a plot to get revenge, but the wedding is on the gorgeous isle of Capri and who can turn down such an invite? Plus, Stephanie could use the publicity and the whole not getting sued by Emily for using her likeness without permission. That’s a plus, too.
Already, Another Simple Favor is wildly complicated, but that’s also why it works. Every character has a knotty relationship with another, so that nobody can ever fully be trusted. Each conversation twists and turns from friendship to bitterness to hatred and back again, but rarely concludes how you might expect. One thing you can count on is a lot of F-bombs, a lot of nasty insults, and the lingering threat that somebody will stab the other. Sean, forced to attend the wedding by a court order, has become a drunken old fart after the divorce, and in-between swigs of liquor can’t help commenting on Emily’s “cavernous vagina”. As one might expect, comments like these don’t make Dante…remember, a dangerous mafioso, very happy. Things get saltier when Dante’s mother, Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci), not at all happy with Emily joining the family, surprises everyone by inviting her future daughter-in-law’s crackpot mom (Elizabeth Perkins, replacing Jean Smart) and estranged aunt Linda (Allison Janney), who also seems a bit off her rocker.
But then, the characters reflect the insanity of the film as a whole. This is a movie that relishes in pushing boundaries and embracing its own salacious nature. You’ll hear the phrases “brother fucker” and “sister fucker” more in Another Simple Favor than anytime in your life before or after, and they aren’t really insults? Perversely, they’re like compliments shared between frenemies.
When Emily’s big day gets derailed by a couple of murders, Another Simple Favor switches to mystery mode but remains just as entertainingly twisted. Does any of it make sense? I mean, sort of, if you’re fully investe in the film’s weird internal logic. You have to invest in the brokenness of these people fully. By the time the FBI gets involved and Stephanie gets set up for murder, it begins to feel like anything can happen at any moment. Paul Feig returns as director, and he’s no stranger to campy comedy. He really leans into it this time, though, and while it might dull some of the intrigue it’s more than made up for by unbridled lunacy. Another Simple Favor is a superior sequel, a sweet and delicious cocktail of intrigue, comedy, and fashion best served dry as a bone.
Another Simple Favor hits Prime Video on May 1st.
