Another Simple Favour – Review

Cert – 15, Run-time – 2 hours 1 minute, Director – Paul Feig

Struggling with book sales, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) attends the wedding of friend-turned-attempted-murderer Emily (Blake Lively), where she finds herself blamed when death strikes again.

Paul Feig recently stated in an interview with Empire that sequels often tend to heighten what people liked so much about the first and loose some of their appeal because of that. He claimed that what people really want are what they’re attached to in the first place: the characters. In the case of Another Simple Favour, the sequel-hesitant director’s first follow-up, Feig appears to be in a different state of mind to returning writer Jessica Sharzer and new co-writer Laeta Kalogridis as they ramp up the campness of the multi-genre original.

A reasonable success when first released 2018’s A Simple Favour seemed to have a cult audience from the off. This follow-up appears to play to what that audience, or at least the vocal audience on the internet, claimed to love so much. Thus, like the heightened tone the characters also lean into a lighter, sillier sensibility. Feig has also talked about stakes and tension in interviews promoting this film, yet as the narrative of Another Simple Favour develops twists a more akin to preposterous nonsense – although entertainingly so.

We re-meet Anna Kendrick’s mum-blogger turned online investigator Stephanie Smothers embarking on a low-attended book tour to promote her novel based on her previous experiences with Blake Lively’s now-imprisoned Emily. However, Emily finds herself released on appeal, turning up at one of Stephanie’s events to invite her to her upcoming wedding, as maid of honour. With the hope of increased sales, and the threat of a lawsuit, Stephanie boards the colourful private jet to Capri for a wedding which quickly turns from sun-soaked to blood-soaked.

Finding herself accused of multiple murders, and surrounded by mafia figures, including Emily’s husband-to-be (Michele Morrone), Stephanie sets out to prove herself innocent and get to the bottom of what’s going on; suspecting Emily of seeking revenge. On paper the events may be those of a suspenseful thriller, when in actuality the film presents them as part of a lighter jaunt across an island, helped by the focus on the campness. As things develop they grow from feeling uneven and unengaging to, once they truly kick off, purely enjoyable for the slightly messy nature in which they’re dealt with. The eventually convoluted nature is to some degree all part of the fun of the unfolding shenanigans.

The cast appear to largely be in on this too, especially Kendrick and Allison Janney who truly hams it up in gloriously scene-chewing fashion. With the garishly colourful and sunny surroundings, and costumes to fit, the visual style of the film, even in dark rooms somehow seeming like a full-beam light is being emitted, matches a tone which appears to be aiming at a Mamma Mia audience. A film in which you can clearly see the blemishes but still manage to have an enjoyable time once the murder-mystery starts to unfold – and it certainly seems as if the cast and crew at least had a riot making this.

Almost at the midpoint between the genre-meld of the first film and a complete send-up, Another Simply Favour takes some time to get its elements together. It has its destination but wants to set everything up, and remind us of all the characters from the first film who we may have (for me almost certainly) forgotten beforehand – including Henry Golding reappearing as Emily’s now-ex-husband in a very different, frequently drunken, manner. The film enters a state of pure nonsense instead of tension in regards to its thriller aspects, and while this may not always be the intention there’s enough of a tongue-in-cheek feeling throughout to help with the enjoyment, and occasional laughs, to be found throughout.

Focusing more on the campness of the first film than anything else, once things finally get going, the twists of Another Simple Favour are pure nonsense and the cast seem to embrace this the sillier their performance get. Undoubtedly rough around, and beyond, the edges there’s at least still an amusing time to be had.