Film Review: A Simple Favor (2018)
A Hong Kong drama in disguise.
I was so perplexed when I walked out of the cinema after A Simple Favor.
My mind just couldn’t process what I had just watched.
Was it a femme fatale crime drama, with a hint of comedy? Or was it a straight-up B movie from the early 2000s, all style and no substance?
And, more importantly, did I love it or was I just too confused to hate it?
What is the plot of this movie?
If you’ve seen any of the interviews the cast has given, you’ll know that the plot is hard to explain, to say the least. I mean, it’s just one of those movies whose entire appeal lies in the mysterious whodunit circumstances behind the disappearance of Blake Lively’s Emily.
Once the plot is revealed, the fun is gone.
Interest drops drastically.
And yet, unlike a television show, where you can turn it off halfway once interest wanes, a movie, as is famously said, provides a captive audience.
Some people might walk out, of course, but the chances are usually quite low.
After all, it’s just 2 hours.
Most people will either just fall asleep, or watch it through. And even if they do leave, the studio already has their ticket money!
So, even if you guessed the plot of A Simple Favor halfway through, there’s still a high chance you would have stayed for the bonkers plot twists at the end.
Yes, I said TWISTS. plural.
I thought I pulled a Sherlock Holmes and guessed the villain within the first hour, but I was then proven wrong, then right, then wrong again.
This film might have started with a mysterious disappearance, but then it (d)evolves into a Gone Girl-like story, accompanied by random bursts of comedy and aspiring-hipster-like French Music.
(Oh wait. Was the music meant to parody films who think they’re fancy as hell?
To be honest, I really can’t tell.)
And then it hit me.
This movie is like a classic Hong Kong drama!
Yes, it’s been shortened from 23 one-hour episodes to one 2 hour long movie, but…trust me on this.
There’s the ridiculous plot twists that don’t line up upon further viewing.
There’s the talented femme fatales who provide most of the drama.
There’s the convoluted backstory that always involves extra siblings popping up from a dark corner of their past.
There’s the innocent bystanders who become collateral damage.
There’s the odd foreign-language music that is somehow inserted into serious scenes for no reason.
And finally, there’s the overeager effort to bring in current methods of communication, which oftentimes results in odd scenes with social media channels.
This was quite a popular technique in Hong Kong, at least when I was growing up and glued to Hong Kong’s TVB.
As my father said, “About 40 minutes into a 1-hour drama, people must start fighting and yelling. That’s the Hong Kong drama way.”
What that meant was that drama trumped consistency in plot. You can imagine what that resulted in, for a show with 23 hours to fill; the number of random siblings, murders, and twists that appeared was too many to count.
When my dad watched A Simple Favor, his review was, “I watched so many Hong Kong dramas, the first few twists with Blake Lively were easy to guess! But when it got even more complex, whoa, that was when the fun started!”
Who’s in the cast?
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.
These two might already seem like a great pairing in theory, but in practice…wow are they spectacular together.
The chemistry between the two of them is explosive (not literally, sadly), which helps the script come alive.
It’s obvious when you compare their talent with Henry Golding, who trips over every line and sounds like he’s passionately memorising a script for a school play. It’s a pity, considering that he held his own in Crazy Rich Asians, but I guess this is where experience and exposure as an actor finally become a strength.
Kendrick and Lively benefit, because most of the movie centers around them playing characters that the public already thinks they are. The film then has the perfect in-built set-up from which to subvert their personas to provide surprises and shock.
Kendrick plays Stephanie, who is a over-eager and chatty mommy blogger. Stephanie always tries to smile and please others, and is aiming to be the perfect mom. While Kendrick herself isn’t a mom, she does have a reputation as being fast-talking, witty, and a classic earnest “theatre nerd”.
Lively, of Gossip Girl fame, plays Emily, who is glamorous and mysterious. She is foul-mouthed but seductive as hell, and can get you to do anything by unleashing her smile. Emily is the modern, laissez-faire and louche mom; basically, the one you wish you were. Lively isn’t exactly like this, but…she’s pretty damn close, at least in the public eye. Have you seen her Instagram feed?
A Simple Favor thus uses impeccable casting to ensure that you go into the movie having strong preconceived notions of the plot direction. The director, Paul Feig, and the screenwriter, Jessica Sharzer (of American Horror Story!), can then systematically break it down.
So, did you like it or not?
It took me a little to figure out how I felt about it, but in essence:
Yes, I did.
It was convoluted, and messy, and fun, and silly, and something that you’re going to tell your friends to watch even though “I can’t tell you the plot, just watch it first!”.
“Here’s the thing about thrillers. They’re inherently kind of absurd because so many crazy things are going on. While I love modern day thrillers, I think sometimes they take themselves way too seriously. They don’t nod to the fact of going, ‘Look, we know this is nuts.’” — Paul Feig, Interview with Slash Film
It doesn’t apologise for how convoluted its plot gets, but it doesn’t get overly serious about it either. And because of that, you don’t get the type of anger you see with movies like…well, any DC universe film.
You can’t, and won’t, get too upset about how messy the plot is, because the film has been produced and crafted in such a way that you know it’s all in pursuit of a fun mess.
Just like Hong Kong dramas!
It makes you think, and surprises you, and is representative of the director’s vision, has strong lead performances, and also helped the studio make a profit from word-of-mouth ($78m off a $20m budget so far.)
More fun films like these, please.
Rating:
8/10 STARS
