A Simple Favor | Teen Ink

A Simple Favor

March 16, 2019
By MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
MovieReviewer_18 ELITE, Short Hills, New Jersey
678 articles 0 photos 8 comments

 A Simple Favor is a mysterious thriller revolving around the disappearance of a woman named Emily Nelson, who's a mother, wife, and friend. The movie revolves around two friends who appear to be polar opposites. One of the friends, Stephanie, is a widowed mother that is heavily involved with her son's life and his school. She is always there to help out with activities, and it seems like she lives to be a mother. In fact, Stephanie is a mommy video-blogger and gives her watchers helpful tips and advice on parenting. The other friend, Emily, has a high-level job working for a fashion designer and spends basically no time on activities at the school, and her involvement with her son seems fairly minimal. However, one day, the two mothers end up meeting one another when their sons ask for a playdate. Because of this, the two mothers and the sons end up going to Emily's house to hang out. The two mothers end up bonding with one another, and soon enough, a friendship blossoms between them. As the two begin to become closer with one another, Emily begins to request favors from Stephanie, little ones, like picking up her son from school. On a seemingly ordinary day, Emily asks for one of these simple favors, and although Stephanie picks up both sons, she doesn't hear from Stephanie within the next two days, leading to her calling Emily's husband. Once the husband arrives at her house, they soon realize that they should file a missing-person case. Because Stephanie wants to find out the truth about the odd disappearance of her newly acquainted best friend, she begins to search through the clues to uncover the truth, except as she does this, she begins to learn things she would have never expected, causing her to realize that she may not know her best friend as well as she thinks. 
 

A Simple Favor is overall a relentlessly entertaining adventure that knows how to keep audiences wanting more. The beginning of the movie does a fairly good job of introducing audiences to all of the characters, but it does feel a little too predictable and slightly too slow. The middle of the movie proves to be capable of progressing the movie along in a satisfactory manner that introduces characters to newly added content that helps to make the movie substantially more interesting. The enticing ending of the movie proves to be a complicated one, but the very conclusion of the movie is exhilarating and sure to please. The beginning portion of the end makes it seems like the movie is going to just end in an okay manner that only barely ties up all loose knots, but thanks to some truly splendid surprises, the ending proves to be a fantastic one that makes the entire movie cohesive and really changes viewers' perceptions of all of the characters. Throughout the movie, there are thrilling twists and turns at seemingly every inch and corner, and these are a major factor in causing the movie to be unpredictable, which is a necessity for mysteries. 

 A Simple Favor is like an intriguing staircase. As the movie spirals down and gets further along, things just get better and better, and as things progress, the movie becomes that much more complex as more intricate layers are added into the movie, completely changing everything. 

 A Simple Favor starts out pleasant, which is expected, but what comes next completely isn't. The movie becomes dark and eerie in some places, helping to give the movie some horror-like qualities. The characters in the movie are surprisingly complicated, and because the truth behind everyone isn't revealed at first, as the dark secrets of everyone gets revealed, it is truly enjoyable to watch as things unfold.

 A Simple Favor greatly benefits from having a spectacular cast that shines. Blake Lively does a superb job of portraying Emily, and her performance is definitely one of the best ones in the movie. She is able to bring spunk, personality, and intensity to the movie, and all of this aids in making the character significantly more sophisticated and perplexing. Anna Kendrick does an amazing portrayal of Stephanie and is able to showcase the incredible combination of innocence and naiveness, as well as the darker thoughts that the character begins to experience. The performances of Blake and Anna help to combine together to create an awesome acting duo that is just a delight. Their two characters are opposites, so they are able to balance and counterpart one another. Henry Golding has a completely underrated performance as Sean, who is the husband to Stephanie. His character may not be the star of the movie, but his role is crucial to the outcome and is certainly intriguing to watch. 

 A Simple Favor has the unique ability to say that it is enjoyed by both critics and viewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie an impressive 86%, which is just an outstanding score, and a whopping 89% of Google users liked the movie, demonstrating that a wide variety of audiences liked the movie, helping to cement the claim that the movie certainly is worth watching. 

 A Simple Favor is absolutely a must-see, since it will surpass any and all expectations, due to a stellar cast, a solid mystery, and the fact that the ending is so brilliant that it is able to shock audiences numerous times. The movie may appear to be simple, but it is everything but that. 


The author's comments:

"Everybody has a dark side. Some of us are better at hiding it than others." - Stephanie


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