Summary

• A Simple Favor, starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, is a twisty crime thriller with unexpected reveals and dark secrets.
• Director Paul Feig brings a mix of humor and mystery to the film, creating a unique blend not seen in his previous works.
• The film explores themes of manipulation, infidelity, and the expectations placed on women in society, delivering a powerful commentary.

Paul Feig's A Simple Favor explained is a crime thriller that features plenty of twists and reveals as one woman investigates the disappearance of another. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in A Simple Favor's cast as single mom Stephanie Smothers and fellow mother Emily Nelson, respectively. The two become friends when their sons spend time together outside of school. However, when Emily mysteriously vanishes, Stephanie takes the investigation of her friend's disappearance into her own hands. Along the way, the secrets both women have kept hidden for years are revealed.

Adapted from the book of the same name by Darcey Bell, A Simple Favor is a crime thriller in the vein of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins' The Girl on the Train - both of which were adapted to film to varying success. Trailers for A Simple Favor teased another such twisty mystery, but with comedy director Paul Feig behind the camera, viewers knew to expect plenty of humor, too. But none of his movies have featured the twists and reveals explained in A Simple Favor.

Watch A Simple Favor on Prime Video

Emily's Twin Sister Returns

Faith Disappeared After She & Emily Burned Down Their Family Home

Emily disappears after asking Stephanie to pick up her son from school, while her husband Sean (Henry Golding) is in London visiting his mother. After days of searching, Emily's body is seemingly found in a lake at a camp in Michigan. However, it's later revealed that the body doesn't belong to Emily, but Emily's twin, Faith. Emily and her sister grew up at their parents' home but set fire to it when they were teenagers, killing their father and running away to avoid consequences.

Their crime is why Emily doesn't like to have her picture taken as she's perpetually on the run from her childhood. The twins were split up to avoid detection and when they were meant to reunite and start a new life together, Faith didn't show. Instead, Emily starts her own life but Emily remains angry at her twin for leaving her.

Emily Kills Faith To Keep Their Childhood Crime From Being Exposed

She Makes The Body Look Like Hers Sean Can Claim The Life Insurance

Emily's disappearance is the result of her twin showing up out of the blue and asking Emily to meet at the camp they both attended as children - the one in Michigan. Emily's twin is a poor woman addicted to drugs who's preparing to turn herself in for the fire, taking Emily down with her. She pleads for money and Emily seemingly agrees, but it's a ploy because Emily can't let her twin destroy her new life - the life she built when her twin left her alone to fend for herself.

The two go for a swim in the lake for old time's sake, but Emily drowns her sister. Then, Emily makes the body look like hers (the two have matching tattoos they got after running away) and fakes her own death so that Sean can get the payout on the life insurance policy. Sean, meanwhile, has no idea about Emily's plan until she shows up later and tells him.

Stephanie Has An Affair With Her Half-Brother

Her Husband Kills Himself & Chris By Driving Off A Cliff

At the heart of it, A Simple Favor is about infidelity. Stephanie is a single mother who was widowed when her husband and half-brother died in a tragic car accident, and she's only able to support herself through her husband's life insurance (Stephanie telling Emily about the life insurance is what inspires Emily's plot to help her own family get out of debt by faking her death). However, as Stephanie slowly reveals to Emily throughout the movie, she slept with her half-brother Chris when they were younger, and it's implied that they continued sleeping together.

Later, Stephanie reveals that her husband was always suspicious of her relationship with Chris, and accused their son Miles of actually being Chris's biological child. In a drunken rage, Stephanie's husband drives off the road with Chris in the passenger seat of his car, purposefully killing them both. When Emily asks Stephanie who she misses most, Stephanie is unable to choose, implying she loves Chris just as much if not more than her husband.

Stephanie Attempts To Expose Emily

She Secretly Streamed The Whole Thing On Her Vlog

Stephanie, Emily, and Sean get together - with Stephanie aiming to get Emily to admit to what she's done, while Emily wants to kill Stephanie for everything she's uncovered, as well as for sleeping with Sean when they thought Emily was dead. However, Emily killed the bugs the police placed in the home to record her confession. But in one final twist, Stephanie reveals she has a small camera on her shirt that streamed the entire interaction live to her vlog. As a result, the police have the confession and Emily goes to jail.

What A Simple Favor's Ending Really Means

It's A Commentary On Society's Expectations Of Women

At its core, A Simple Favor's ending reveals not only the truth behind Emily's disappearance but also the extent of her manipulation and planning. Yet, it's not just about the plot twists or uncovering the mystery; it's about the characters' transformations and what these reveal about society's expectations of women. The film cleverly uses its thriller genre to critique traditional gender roles and the idealization of the "perfect" life, whether it be through the lens of motherhood, marriage, or career. The ending underscores the idea that the facades people create can often hide much darker truths.

Key Release Dates

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  A Simple Favor

  Release Date:

  2018-08-29