This review contains spoilers.
New movie “Another Simple Favor” tries to bottle the same intoxicating cocktail of crime and couture of its cult hit predecessor, “A Simple Favor,” but the sequel ultimately falls short of capturing the original’s charm.
As a big fan of the first installment, I was eager to see what a long-awaited sequel would serve up. Amid all the legal drama and internet hate that A-list actress Blake Lively has been swept up in this past year, the promo and release of “Another Simple Favor” popped up out of nowhere.
The thriller movie released May 1 for streaming on Amazon Prime Video. From the start, it was bound to fail.
The film opens by immediately unraveling the first movie’s conclusion. When we last saw Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick), she had uncovered the truth about her best friend Emily Nelson (Lively) — a glamorous woman who faked her own death and manipulated everyone around her. Now, thanks to a creative legal team, somehow Emily is out of jail and back to haunt Stephanie, inviting her to be the maid of honor in her wedding to a mysterious old flame from her past.
It feels as though the character dynamics reached by the end of “A Simple Favor” are somewhat disregarded in this film. Stephanie agrees to attend the wedding after Emily essentially blackmails her into doing so. Still, this coercion doesn’t fully explain why Stephanie, who by the end of the first movie had grown more self-assured and distanced herself from Emily’s toxic influence, would so easily reenter her frenemy’s chaotic orbit.
Suddenly, characters are jetting off to Emily’s Capri, Italy, wedding to an Italian mobster, Dante Versano (Michele Morrone). From that point, the plot continues down a rabbit hole of ridiculous twists. The dialogue and acting overdo the dramatics, and we’re left with a story that feels inauthentic and difficult to invest in.
Along with a few other killings, Emily’s mobster fiancé is murdered on their wedding night, after conveniently setting fire to his prenup. Stephanie is then framed for the murders and must clear her name. Surprisingly, Emily steps in to help.
The movie also continues to play with the same plot twists from the first film, making tropes feel repetitive. In the original, Emily’s big secret is that she has an identical twin whom she murdered. In “Another Simple Favor,” viewers find out Emily is, in fact, a triplet, and her long lost sister, who was believed to have died at birth, is Dante’s killer. This reveal feels like a cop-out, which left me laughing instead of providing any shock value.
Another callback from the original is the homoerotic energy between Emily and Stephanie. This time, the queerbaiting is less sexy and more frustrating. If these two characters are so obsessed with one another, I question why, among the many other kooky twists, they can’t just canonically be gay.
We are given steamy dialogue, a kiss between them that adds little to the plot and a myriad of jokes about the two being in love, but the tension between them is never actually explored. I, for one, would’ve enjoyed “Another Simple Favor” a lot more if they expanded on this obvious desire between the two leads.
In the end, Emily disappears yet again, framing her identical sister to serve her jail time. Stephanie is left to her duties as a mommy murder-solving vlogger and raising both her son and Emily’s.
The movie sets up a possible third installment, but by that final scene, I just wanted the credits to roll.
It was nice to return to these two strong, fun female lead characters, and Kendrick and Lively continue to have great acting chemistry. However, “Another Simple Favor” ultimately collapses under the weight of its own absurdities.
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