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Blake Lively is Back to Terrorize Anna Kendrick with Another Simple Favor

By Trace Sauveur  |  March 8, 2025 | 11:00am
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Blake Lively is Back to Terrorize Anna Kendrick with Another Simple Favor
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Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor hit theaters as an amusing skewering of the very material it was adapting. It envisioned the tawdry airport novel thrills of Darcey Bell’s novel of the same name as a darkly comedic, light-on-its-feet mystery that consistently refused to take itself too seriously, warping the tone of the book into something a little askew. In essence, it cleverly satirized the source that provided its foundation, aided by the fizzy chemistry of Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively and its tongue-in-cheek attitude toward its crime-caper shenanigans which has helped earn it a minor cult fandom.

The cheekily titled Another Simple Favor is forced to branch off into uncharted territory. There’s no sequel to Bell’s book, so this six-years-late follow-up is purely the brainchild of Feig and screenwriters Jessica Sharzer (who adapted the first film) and Laeta Kalogridis. The question of whether a sequel to a fairly cut-and-dry thriller was ever necessary lingers over the film’s existence—if it didn’t already feel a little forced, the fact that it’s being casually dropped onto Prime Video doesn’t help elevate its standing.

But the first film was so brazenly ridiculous that artificially ballooning the story outward doesn’t actually seem that crazy. Another Simple Favor takes on the challenge with the same loopy stride that made the original so indulgently entertaining. Feig and company’s extension of the material gleefully indulges in the same silly B-movie theatrics, including but not limited to: murder, extortion, opulent wardrobes, twin confusion, and incestuous relationships. On one level, its self-awareness and love for its own convoluted nature make it seductively enjoyable. On another, it feels like a familiar, less effective retread of ground already well-tread by its predecessor.

The film also starts from inherently weaker territory: some time after the events of the first film, Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) is now a true crime content creator and private investigator, shamelessly platforming her takedowns of unsavory characters for a ravenous audience. She’s written a book about her experience with Emily Nelson (Lively) entitled The Faceless Blonde and is in the middle of a reading when her subject comes waltzing back into her life, out of prison via dubious legal loopholes. Emily promptly proposes that Stephanie be her maid of honor at her wedding in Italy, and Stephanie smells juicy content for her next book—despite the obviously malicious implications.

The setup relies on easy contrivances and logical leaps — it’s hard to buy that Stephanie would be so quick to follow Emily to Italy given their vicious history — but it feels almost moot to question whether the film cares about that at all. Another Simple Favor is primarily focused on one thing: getting these characters to scenic Italian vistas where they can spiral into yet another round of ludicrous, effervescent melodrama.

That shift in setting gives the sequel a small advantage over its predecessor. Events are still shot with an uninspired, sitcom-level sense of staging and lighting, but the picturesque streets and cliffs of Europe inject a newfound energy that the drab doldrums of suburban Connecticut couldn’t provide. It’s an effective cheat code for a film that otherwise makes no effort to evolve its blandly televisual style — every opportunity for an evocative image is undercut by the consistent decision to shoot this more like a commercial than something truly cinematic.

Still, the sumptuous costuming and giddily preposterous plot developments keep Another Simple Favor a breezy, enjoyable romp more often than not, bolstered by the returning capricious chemistry between Kendrick and Lively. Their relationship has evolved into an even deeper game of shifting tensions and flirty passive aggression, amplified by Emily’s hidden motives—and the pile of dead bodies that start appearing during her idyllic wedding weekend. The catalyst of their dynamic lacks the same immediacy as their fraught bond in the first film, as they’re now shoved into a perfectly calculated but somewhat artificial movie version of a murder mystery dinner party. Yet it still carries an almost begrudgingly amusing tongue-in-cheek edge. If there’s any question about the film’s self-awareness, look no further than Stephanie’s assistant Vicky (Alex Newell) quipping about how great this new adventure will be for her next sequel.

The returning cast is having fun, especially Henry Golding as Emily and Stephanie’s old beau Sean, underutilized in a firecracker role that lets him crank up the volatility. A slew of new cast members do their best to leave an impression but often get lost in the constantly shifting plot mechanics. Allison Janney is a welcome addition as Emily’s scheming Aunt Linda, and Michele Morrone largely leads the international cast as Emily’s husband-to-be Dante, a mob associate whose weird subplot about feuding Italian crime families more or less goes nowhere.

Other new additions reflect the film’s commitment to going big at the expense of cohesion, like Taylor Ortega as the world’s worst FBI agent, who exclusively exists as a convenient plot device when the script suddenly needs her. But Another Simple Favor is shamelessly content to arrange its chess pieces as needed, even if it takes a few cheats and shortcuts to get there. The appeal lies in its bouncy energy and the sexy smirk it wears while happily yanking the rug out from under you multiple times over, rather than narrative logic.

That said, the central mystery ultimately isn’t all that fulfilling, and the endgame tease of yet another sequel makes one wonder if this cloth has already been wrung dry. These are thin movies with not much on their minds, no matter how many half-baked gestures this one makes toward critiquing the ethics of true crime content creation—most of which land muddled. The idea of this becoming a full-fledged franchise feels naively optimistic. But in the meantime, maybe it’s not so bad to cast those grander ambitions aside, soak up the bright Italian sun, revel in the beautiful gowns, and indulge in this catty cinema of chic and glamour. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with a cheap book for the beach.

Director: Paul Feig
Writer: Jessica Sharzer, Laeta Kalogridis
Stars: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Andrew Rannells, Bashir Salahuddin, Elizabeth Perkins, Michele Morrone, Elena Sofia Ricci, Alex Newell, Henry Golding, Allison Janney
Release date: May 1, 2025 (Amazon Prime Video)

Trace Sauveur is a writer based in Austin, TX, where he primarily contributes to The Austin Chronicle. He loves David Lynch, John Carpenter, the Fast & Furious movies, and all the same bands he listened to in high school. He is @tracesauveur on Twitter where you can allow his thoughts to contaminate your feed.

 
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