Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

A Simple Favor Blu-ray Movie Review

Gone Girl 2?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 21, 2018

Back in the days of print media, those of us who worked as reviewers at newspapers and/or magazines knew we were probably dealing with a less than completely successful film release if we weren’t granted an opportunity to see the film before its general public exhibition. The thinking by the studios seemed to be, “The less said, the better”, in the case of some “questionable” properties. One might think that that same kind of “caution” wouldn’t necessarily extend to the home media market, since, after all, for all but direct to video releases, movies and television outings being put out on various home media platforms including 1080p Blu-ray and 4K UHD discs have more than likely already been reviewed and, perhaps more importantly, have certainly either been given approval or dismissal by paying audiences. And yet Lionsgate kind of strangely didn’t provide a review copy of A Simple Favor (to me, anyway), this despite the fact that the film’s theatrical exhibition was largely met with positive reviews and (again, perhaps more importantly) at least decent box office returns. However, after having now watched the film and come away at least a little surprised by the tone of it all, I have to say Lionsgate’s marketing “strategy” for this film as a whole seems almost willfully boneheaded. The promotional trailers I saw on broadcast and cable television trying to drum up business for the film’s theatrical exhibition made A Simple Favor seem like "Gone Girl redux". While there is a missing persons element to A Simple Favor, the trailers I personally saw pretty much completely missed the fact that this outing is considerably cheekier than the Gillian Flynn adaptation, with a dark but potent sense of humor, as perhaps might have been surmised by anyone paying attention to the fact that Paul Feig co-produced and directed it.

Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) runs a “mommy vlog” devoted to recipes and crafting, but she takes time out from her “duties” to thank her viewers for being so responsive to a recent event in Stephanie’s life — the mysterious disappearance of her best friend Emily Nelson (Blake Lively). The film then backtracks to depict the meeting of these two, who ended up bonding, more or less anyway, after their adorable sons asked for a playdate when the moms were picking them up at the school both kids attend. Emily is a fashionista, a total Type A with a more than generous amount of snark at her command, while Stephanie is kind of mousy and meek, and so the two would seem to be like oil and water, but perhaps because Stephanie is so taken with Emily and what is revealed to be her incredibly opulent lifestyle, a “kinda sorta” friendship is forged, even if some of the other parents in the “moms’ club” at the school are convinced the “friendship” is merely Emily’s ploy to get Stephanie to be a nanny without pay.

Histories of both Stephanie and Emily are kind of doled out piecemeal as the two get to know each other, but once Emily doesn’t return after giving Stephanie a rushed call that she has an emergency at work and Stephanie needs to pick up Emily’s son after school, Stephanie begins poking her nose around in areas where she arguably shouldn’t, ultimately kind of taking Emily’s place at the Nelson home, which includes author husband Sean Townsend (Henry Golding) and that aforementioned adorable little boy, Nicky (Ian Ho). Already scenarist Jessica Sharzer is toying with audience expectations, since it seems awfully “coincidental” that Emily should disappear so conveniently, allowing Stephanie to get a taste of a life she’d heretofore only dreamed about. Stephanie soon discovers that Emily had any number of secrets, and it’s already been revealed that Emily has an absolute abhorrence to having her picture taken, so there are hints that Emily may either be on the lam or hiding her “true identity” for one reason or the other. It also turns out that Stephanie is not the "saint" that everyone seems to think she is.

Since this film engages in absolutely gleeful misdirection until virtually the last moment, it’s no huge spoiler to state that Emily ends up dead in a lake in Michigan, which sends Stephanie into an investigative fury, all documented interstitially on her vlog. Romantic escapades with Sean have also ensued, making things more complicated, but the police, notably a detective named Summerhill (Bashir Salahuddin) seems to be at least a couple of steps ahead of Stephanie at several key junctures. A Simple Favor can’t help but exploit a conceit very similar to that employed in Gone Girl, with a mid-story reveal and subsequent slight change of perspective, at which point the plot becomes increasingly far fetched, though the pace is so brisk and the performances so energetic that suspension of disbelief isn’t a major problem.

Still, there are a couple of odd elisions here that make it feel like things may have been rejiggered at some point. By the time Stephanie is exploring the nooks and crannies of what seems to be a Christian day camp for teenagers, and then has a run in with Emily’s mother Margaret (Jean Smart) and a completely unexplained character named Bruce (Roger Dunn), things may teeter precariously close to going off the edge for some viewers. Other characters, like Emily’s fashion icon boss Dennis Nylon (Rupert Friend) and the sole male member of the school’s moms’ club Darren (Andrew Rannells) are never really developed and are frankly utilized mostly to deliver occasional punchlines more than anything. There's also a completely underdeveloped character who seems to be having (another) affair with Sean, and several plot points, including the mysterious reappearance of all of Emily's clothes after Stephanie gets rid of them, and a brief allusion to some lesbian activity by the women, are just kind of plopped down with little or no context, as if at least some parts of the film ended up on the cutting room floor.

There’s an undeniably arch quality to much of A Simple Favor which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s some really, well, lively interplay between Lively and Kendrick which keeps the energy here crackling almost all of the time. The labyrinthine screenplay also has enough sense to make fun of itself (at one point Stephanie asks Sean if he and Emily are “Diabolique-ing” her), with a hyperbolic climax that delivers a series of twists and a fair amount of hilarity.

Note: My colleague Brian Orndorf was considerably less pleased with the film than I was. You can read Brian's thoughts here.

A Simple Favor Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

A Simple Favor is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. We home theater buffs evidently have a mystery of our own on our hands, as some members are reporting what they say is a narrower aspect ratio on their 1080p Blu-rays, but as can clearly be seen in the screenshots accompanying this review, the 1080p Blu-ray I received is in 2.00:1. I'm actually wondering now if the reason Lionsgate didn't provide review copies is that they discovered a technical issue with their first run, but that's pure and rampant speculation on my part. Aside from this kind of odd discrepancy (one that I'll follow up on and report back about here if I'm able to discover anything), this is a really nice looking transfer culled from digital capture by a camera I don't think I've ever dealt with previously in other reviews of mine, the Panavision Millennium DXL, which evidently has a RED sensor and (according to online data as well as the specs on the IMDb) has a source capture resolution of 8K, which the IMDb is reporting was finished at a 2K DI. This is an often sumptuously colorful outing, with nice detail levels across the board. The film's production design is sleek and modern, and both Emily's house and her outfits offer consistent opportunities for displays of both an intensely suffused palette and lots of textural information on things like fabrics or the many canvases that are hung on the walls. Fine detail is typically excellent as well. There are just a couple of niggling qualms some may have, including a pretty noticeable lack of shadow detail in a couple of late scenes where Stephanie is exploring dank and dark environments. There were also a couple of very brief flirtations with banding that I noticed when lighting intensities suddenly changed.

A Simple Favor Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are a ton of really fun (often French) source cues utilized throughout A Simple Favor, something that opens up the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track quite winningly. The film opens with an enjoyably raucous version of the old chestnut "Music to Watch Girls By", albeit in French, and subsequent cues are similarly energetic, with a nice spread through the surround channels. Several non-musical sequences also offer good surround activity, including some noisy schoolroom moments, a playdate at the park, and, later (if somewhat briefly), what seems to be turning into a car chase between Stephanie and a supposed assailant. Ambient environmental sounds regularly dot the surrounds in the outdoor material, and throughout the entire presentation dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly and with excellent prioritization.

A Simple Favor Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Special Features Introduction by Paul Feig (1080p; 00:17) is a completely pointless excercise, kind of like Feig's Ghostbusters (sorry, couldn't resist).


• Audio Commentary with Director Paul Feig


• Audio Commentary with Director Paul Feig, Actors Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Jean Smart and Bashir Salahuddin


• Audio Commentary with Director Paul Feig, Writer Jessica Sharzer, Producer Jessie Henderson, Cinematographer John Schwartzman, and Costume Designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus


• Gravestone Martinis (1080p; 19:40) is an enjoyable EPK with some fun interviews.


• Suburban Noir: The Visual Style of A Simple Favor (1080p; 12:27) looks at the film's rather distinctive production design and cinematography.


• Dapper Director Diaries with Paul Feig (1080p; 10:34) offers some behind the scenes fun.


• Love Triangle (1080p; 6:11) looks at the film's menage a trois.


• Style by Paul (1080p; 4:46) pays homage to Feig's fashion sense.


• Flash Mob Making Of (1080p; 5:23) is a making of a jettisoned ending for the film.


• Dennis Nylon (1080p; 4:55) arguably gives more screentime to the character than the film does.


• A Simple Playdate (1080p; 4:33) focuses on the sweet kids.


• Flash Mob: Alternate Ending (1080p; 4:53) features an optional intro by Feig.


• Gag Reel (1080p; 3:30)


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 11:36) also feature an optional intro by Feig.

A Simple Favor Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Despite its sometimes head scratching omissions and/or lack of logic, I actually enjoyed huge swaths of A Simple Favor. The film made me laugh out loud several times, and the interplay between Kendrick and Lively was consistently engaging. The film may offer just a few too many ostensible twists for its own good, but it seems to have a sense of humor about itself, something that is often sadly missing in contemporary comedies. Fans of the cast will most likely be willing to overlook any perceived deficits. Technical merits are first rate, the supplemental package outstanding, and A Simple Favor comes Recommended.