Cast: Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Michele Morone, Henry Golding, Kelly McCormack, Elizabeth Perkins, Allison Janney, Taylor Ortega and Alex Newell
Director: Paul Feig
Platform: Amazon Prime since 1 May
Rating out 5: ★★
Sequels often suffer from the paradox of expectation: they must offer more yet still feel the same. Another Simple Favor, Paul Feig’s follow-up to his stylish 2018 film, attempts this high-wire act with a wink and a smile.
It isn’t a bad film. It is often amusing and sometimes clever. But it lacks the surprise and underlying menace that made the original so effective.
This sequel moves the action from Connecticut to the sun-drenched cliffs of Capri, Italy, a picturesque location that threatens to become the main character. Emily is getting married to Dante, a member of an Italian crime family, and Stephanie, now a struggling true crime author is once again caught up in her friend’s web of secrets and lies. There are bodies, betrayals, designer outfits, and a subplot that might have worked better if the film didn’t insist on laughing at its own jokes quite so loudly.
Blake Lively remains a force of charisma. She plays Emily like a well-dressed cobra, coiled, dangerous, and charming. Kendrick brings her signature mix of perk and pathos, though this time Stephanie feels more like a sidekick in her own story. Their chemistry is still strong, but the film often sidelines it in favour of new characters that aren’t as compelling.
The script attempts complexity but often settles for complication.
Characters reveal secrets with the regularity of a metronome, each revelation slightly less impactful than the last. By the third act, you begin to feel the machinery of the plot grinding too loudly, and it’s a distraction on its own.
Henry Golding as Emily’s husband Sean offers a performance that is, at best, decorative, a handsome void around which the women orbit. The film seems aware of this imbalance but doesn’t quite manage to transform it into commentary.
Feig’s direction demonstrates technical competence throughout, though you wonder what someone with a more natural affinity for suspense might have done with the material. The film’s tone fluctuates between thriller and satire with mixed results.
Another Simple Favor is not without merit, it moves efficiently, looks pleasant enough, and features moments of genuine tension and some belter comedic one liners. But like the martinis its characters drink so fashionably, it promises more fun than it ultimately delivers, leaving you with the faint suspicion that somewhere beneath its polished surface lurks a more interesting film that never quite materialised.
