Kimber Myers
Like a bottle of prosecco gone flat, this Italian-set sequel to A Simple Favor has lost all the fizz of its predecessor. Another Simple Favor has a vague whiff of what made the original so much fun, but that makes its current flat state all the more depressing. This thriller is supposed to be a good time — filled with shocking twists, sizzling chemistry, and enviable fashion — but Another Simple Favor is such a yawn. Even the outfits have largely lost their luster. What is even the point?
A Simple Favor was a surprisingly delightful trifle that doesn’t hold up well to scrutiny (except for the stitching on Blake Lively’s immaculately tailored suits). With its silly plot full of equally shocking dialogue and plot turns, Paul Feig’s movie was the cinematic equivalent of a thriller novel you breeze through on a beach, skimming a bit because the writing isn’t that great, but it’s still juicy fun. A Simple Favor was blithe and bitchy, and it was able to coast on the pairing of Lively’s sleek, sophisticated Emily and Anna Kendrick’s seemingly sweet Stephanie. Their banter electrified the experience, making it easy to gloss over the script’s logic problems.
It’s far harder to do that with its successor, where issues glint and glare like Emily’s giant heirloom wedding ring from the previous movie. Another Simple Favor begins years after A Simple Favor, with Emily in prison for her many misdeeds (well, at least the legal ones). Without Emily (Lively), Stephanie’s life lacks sparkle. Her book about their friendship and Emily’s crimes isn’t selling like she or her agent, Vicky (Alex Newell), wish it would, and she hasn’t recorded a video for her channel in months. (We know this courtesy of Andrew Rannell’s Darren, one of the highlights of the first film who doesn’t get enough to do here.) However, when Emily struts into Stephanie’s under-attended book signing, she has … another simple favor to ask of her BFF: be her maid of honor at Emily’s wedding to a mysterious Italian man, a task made infinitely better thanks to the wedding’s setting in Capri. There’s just the threat of Emily’s vengeance and Stephanie’s potential murder to keep it from being a real vacation. Stephanie stays alive, but other attendees start dying off, and it’s up to Stephanie to use her crime-solving skills to figure out who’s responsible.
Another Simple Favor attempts to recapture the magic of the first film, but the only upgrade is trading the Connecticut suburb setting of the 2018 film for the island of Capri. A Simple Favor’s bubbly soundtrack of French pop is replaced by a smattering of Italian songs, none of which have the frisson of “Bonnie and Clyde” by Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg. It isn’t just the songs that lack brio; Emily’s outfits aren’t as good this time around. Costume designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus switches out the subversive suits that Emily wore as a corporate girlie in favor of an Italian mob wife aesthetic. Her clothes are trashy, glam, and only mildly interesting, with only a few fits that work. (But when they work, they work.)
Yet what’s missed even more than style is a witty script. This round was written by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis after Sharzer adapted Darcey Bell’s novel for the first movie. Sharzer and Kalogridiscan’t can’t quite capture the charm that made A Simple Favor such wicked fun, instead inserting more vulgarity in lieu of actual jokes. Saying the c-word twice in the span of a minute might shock some people, but the dialogue rarely gets the laughs they’re aiming for.
I saw Another Simple Favor with a crowd at an advanced screening, and the theater was weirdly silent during most of the lines intended to be jokes. Meanwhile, when I rewatched A Simple Favor from my couch a few days prior, I laughed out loud multiple times. Prime Video is releasing this one straight to streaming, so being surrounded by an oddly quiet audience won’t be most viewers’ experience, but I imagine it will still feel like something is missing when watching it at home. Despite the glamorous setting and clothes (and solid cast), Another Simple Favor feels pretty cheap—and it lacks the comic energy that typified Feig’s best work in Spy, Bridesmaids, and even the first movie, which felt like a bit of a reach for the director at the time.
Lively and Kendrick aren’t really to blame. There are a few flat line readings, but they’re mostly delivering work on the level of the first movie, even if the script isn’t. Other familiar faces return, including Henry Golding, Aparna Nancherla, Kelly McCormack, Bashir Salahuddin, and the two child actors Joshua Satine and Ian Ho. A few new ones appear, including Allison Janney and Elena Sofia Ricci, as well as Elizabeth Perkins, who steps in for Jean Smart, who has since added to her Emmy collection with her role on Hacks. Most of these actors can at least occasionally rise above the material, but the exception is Michele Morrone, who plays Emily’s groom, Dante. He’s hot, sure, which is largely what was required of him for the Netflix early pandemic watch 365 Days, when people would accept any substitute for human connection. Yet even for his lines in Italian, the actor is a handsome void who fails to communicate literally any emotion with clarity.
A Simple Favor went down easy, as crisp and cool as Emily’s famous martini. With its lack of charm and wit, Its successor requires a bit more effort. This is no longer the easy task of its title. Another Simple Favor feels more like an arduous chore.
D+
“Another Simple Favor” is streaming today on Amazon Prime Video.
