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A Simple Favor (film)

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A Simple Favor
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul Feig
Screenplay byJessica Sharzer
Based onA Simple Favor
by Darcey Bell
Produced by
  • Paul Feig
  • Jessie Henderson
Starring
CinematographyJohn Schwartzman
Edited byBrent White
Music byTheodore Shapiro
Production
companies
Distributed byLionsgate
Release date
  • September 14, 2018 (2018-09-14)
Running time
117 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$20 million[2]
Box office$97.6 million[3]

A Simple Favor is a 2018 American black comedy crime thriller film directed by Paul Feig from a screenplay by Jessica Sharzer, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell. The film stars Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Rupert Friend, and Jean Smart and follows a small town vlogger who tries to solve the disappearance of her mysterious and elegant friend.

A Simple Favor was released in the United States on September 14, 2018, by Lionsgate. Critics praised the plot twists, and the performances of Kendrick, Lively and Golding. The film grossed $97 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.

The film was released in the UK with the title spelled as A Simple Favour.[4]

Plot

Widowed single mother Stephanie Smothers runs a vlog featuring crafts and recipes for parents. She becomes friends with Emily Nelson, a PR director for a fashion company, and they exchange confessions over martinis. Stephanie shares that as a teenager, she had sex with her half-brother Chris. Emily is frustrated by the lack of success of her husband, English professor Sean Townsend, and their poor financial situation.

Stephanie babysits Emily's son while Sean is in London. After two days of Emily not returning calls, Stephanie learns from Emily's boss, Dennis Nylon, that Emily is in Miami. Stephanie calls Sean, who contacts the police. Trying to solve her disappearance, Stephanie makes missing person flyers using a photo of Emily that she found hidden on her desk.

Detective Summerville reports that Emily lied about flying to Miami, and her drowned body is discovered in the lake at a summer camp in Michigan. Stephanie and Sean share their grief and begin a sexual relationship. Summerville reveals to Stephanie that Emily had severe liver damage, a large amount of heroin in her system, and that Sean had recently taken out $4 million life insurance on Emily.

Stephanie receives an insulting message apparently from Emily about her tryst with her half-brother. Stephanie recalls that her late husband suspected her infidelity and may have intentionally caused the car crash that killed both him and Chris. Investigating Emily's past, Stephanie meets Diana Hyland, who painted a portrait of Emily. Diana says the painting is actually of her muse Claudia, whom she describes as a con artist who disappeared. Diana's information leads Stephanie to a yearbook showing Emily as Hope McLanden, with an identical twin named Faith McLanden. Their mother, Margaret, explains that at 16, the twins had set fire to the house, killing their father. Meanwhile, Emily surprises Sean and tells him she plans to collect the insurance money and leave the country.

Stephanie contrives to meet with Emily, who explains she and her sister started the fire to kill their abusive father. The sisters fled separately with a plan to reunite later, but Faith didn't turn up. Emily built a career and family when, 14 years later, Faith reappeared. Now an alcoholic and heroin addict, she threatened to tell about the murder unless paid a million dollars. Emily drowned Faith in the lake, but tells Stephanie she committed suicide and that Sean planned the insurance scam.

Emily and Stephanie are both angered by Sean's relationship with the other and frame Sean for abusing Emily. Sean is arrested and released on bail. Stephanie has a change of heart and stages an argument with Sean in front of Emily to incriminate her while police-planted microphones are recording. She fakes shooting Sean. Emily, having predicted their ruse and disabled the microphones, confesses her crimes while holding the pair at gunpoint, saying she will stage their murder-suicide. Shooting Sean in the shoulder, she turns the gun on Stephanie, who reveals a hidden camera is live-streaming the entire event on her vlog. Emily attempts to escape only to be hit by a car driven by Stephanie's friend Darren. She is arrested immediately after.

Closing text says Emily was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Sean's second novel was a bestseller and he became a successful professor at Berkeley. Stephanie is dating another man. Her vlog has a million followers and is being developed as a TV show, and she is a part-time private detective. In a mid-credits scene, Emily is seen winning a basketball game in prison.

Cast

Production

Development

In January 2016, it was announced that 20th Century Fox had bought the film rights to author Darcey Bell's novel A Simple Favor prior to the book's publication. The story was pitched as being similar to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. Creative Artists Agency represented the movie rights in the deal with Fox.[5]

Pre-production

In June 2017, it was announced that A Simple Favor would be extricated from 20th Century Fox and instead be distributed by Lionsgate. It was also announced that the film would be directed by Paul Feig, with Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively "in talks" for the lead roles.[6] On July 26, 2017, Kendrick and Lively were confirmed, while Henry Golding joined the cast as the husband of Lively's character.[7] Linda Cardellini was announced as having been cast in an undisclosed role in September 2017,[8] and Andrew Rannells, Jean Smart, and Rupert Friend were later added.[9]

Filming

A Simple Favor commenced principal photography on August 14, 2017, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[7] The film was shot in the Univisium 2.00:1 aspect ratio on Panavision Millennium DXL 8K cameras.

Release

The film was released on September 14, 2018.[10]

Marketing

On May 1, 2018, Blake Lively hid all pictures from her Instagram account to promote the film.[11] The first teaser trailer was released on May 2, 2018,[12] followed by the second teaser trailer, which was released on May 24.[13]

Reception

Box office

A Simple Favor grossed $53.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $44.1 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $97.6 million, against a production budget of $20 million.[3]

In the United States and Canada, A Simple Favor was released alongside White Boy Rick, Unbroken: Path to Redemption and The Predator, and was projected to gross $12–15 million from 3,102 theaters in its opening weekend.[14] It made $5.9 million on its first day (including $900,000 from Thursday night previews) and $16.1 million over the weekend, finishing third, behind The Predator and The Nun.[2] It dropped just 35% in its second weekend, to $10.4 million, finishing second, behind newcomer The House with a Clock in Its Walls.[15]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 236 reviews, with an average rating of 6.98/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Twisty, twisted, and above all simply fun, A Simple Favor casts a stylish mommy noir spell strengthened by potent performances from Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively."[16] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[17] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 76% positive score.[2]

Amy Nicholson of Variety magazine wrote: "The film feels a lot like the Serge Gainsbourg number that Stephanie dances to in the kitchen: jazzy, a little sleazy, and worth a cult following."[18]

References

  1. ^ "A Simple Favor (15)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 16, 2018). "Why 'The Predator' Is Shorter Than 'Predators' At $24M & 'White Boy Rick' So Pale At $8M+ – Sunday Box Office". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "A Simple Favor (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 26, 2019.
  4. ^ Clarke, Cath (21 September 2018). "A Simple Favour review – sublimely silly battle of the moms". The Guardian. London.
  5. ^ McNary, Dave (January 29, 2016). "Fox Developing Murder Mystery 'A Simple Favor' as Movie (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety.
  6. ^ Busch, Anita (June 19, 2017). "Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively in Talks To Star In 'A Simple Favor' For Paul Feig – Update". Deadline.
  7. ^ a b McNary, Dave (July 26, 2017). "'Crazy Rich Asians' Star Henry Golding Joins Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick's 'Simple Favor'". Variety.
  8. ^ Feig, Paul [@paulfeig] (September 15, 2017). "So excited to be back w/ Linda Cardellini on the set of #ASimpleFavor - our 1st time working together since Freaks & Geeks 17 years ago!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Foutch, Haleigh (May 2, 2018). "'A Simple Favor' Trailer: Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively Get Wrapped up in a Mystery". Collider. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  10. ^ McClintock, Pamela (February 26, 2018). "Lionsgate's 'Robin Hood' Relocates to Thanksgiving". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  11. ^ Opelka, Brenna (May 1, 2018). "Blake Lively weirdly deleted all her Instagram photos and is now exclusively following people named Emily Nelson". Business Insider. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  12. ^ Scott, Ryan (May 2, 2018). "A Simple Favor Trailer Pulls Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively Into a Mystery". MovieWeb. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  13. ^ Pendersen, Erik (May 24, 2018). "'A Simple Favor' Teaser: Anna Kendrick & Blake Lively In Thriller From Paul Feig". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  14. ^ Rubin, Rebeeca (September 11, 2018). "Box Office: 'The Predator' to Feast on 'A Simple Favor', 'White Boy Rick'". Variety. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
  15. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (September 23, 2018). "'The House With A Clock In Its Walls' Sounding Near $27M Alarm; Counterprogramming Still In Deep Sleep". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved September 23, 2018.
  16. ^ "A Simple Favor (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved May 23, 2019.
  17. ^ "A Simple Favor reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved December 11, 2018.
  18. ^ Nicholson, Amy (September 9, 2018). "Film Review: 'A Simple Favor'". Variety.
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