NEO NOIR DARK COMEDY CHAOS OF 'A SIMPLE FAVOR'

Year of Release: 2018

Whoever gets in the middle of a husband and wife in any kind of Film Noir... old or new, serious, comedy or somewhere in-between... is gonna go through the ringer, and that ringer is much stronger during the setup of A SIMPLE FAVOR than when Anna Kendrick's nice single widowed mother starts to figure things out about a beautiful mystery woman who mysteriously goes missing...

Basically, you don't realize how good it is during the first half since it's rather dizzying figuring things out: A character-driven dark comedy by director Paul Fieg that's more SPY than BRIDESMAIDS in its maze-like plot-shifts and unpredictable twists and turns, although, like both, it centers on an unlikely friendship between two polar opposite women thrust into a circumstance beyond their control, and...

Simple Favor Score: ***1/2

Well there's a lot not to spoil here, which is the point of these kind of Thrillers that are equally of the Mystery genre without a handful of culprits to choose from. There are only three here that matter, and the man in the middle of these two sharp, savvy dames is much too young-looking, standard-handsome and, supposedly a once gifted writer, he doesn't seem experienced or timeworn enough to be a has-been at anything. So the girls have twice the work despite one being off screen for way too long...

And with all the running around, whether A SIMPLE FAVOR needs a longer, more fleshed-out first act; a stronger, tighter second act; or a shorter, less meandering third act can be figured out after more than one viewing. And it's a fun, suspenseful, entertaining enough picture to catch again sometime. The main problem is these two very important characters, who are not only friends, but supposedly best friends, never had a chance to get to know each other deeply enough to make their eventual rivalry matter like it should. And as an audience, we can only care as much as they do.