Another Simple Favor

A Simple Favor is one of those movies that absolutely did not need a sequel, the ending of it also doesn’t easily lend itself to one. I will say that the contrast of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick does work really well, Anna is sweet, adorable and quirky as is her character. And Blake is an insufferable pretentious bitch, as is her character. So very little acting was required of either one of them. I am really not sure why we decided to do a sequel 6 years later, or why we are still letting Blake Lively work but here we are.

The second one keeps the framing device of Stephanie’s blog which is cute. I don’t mind the framing device being consistent, the fact that they kept the supporting cast of moms is also amazing. They were really the best part of the first one, especially Anthony Rannells.

So the premise of this one is that Emily is out of jail and getting married to a billionaire in Capri. And her ex-husband and kid are there so we have the entirety of the main cast from the first one. And the new fiance seems a little aggressive, which makes sense because he’s marrying a psychopath.

Sean is very much holding a grudge and it seems that everyone has reached the conclusion that Stephanie was invited to the wedding for the sole purpose of Emily taking her down. Whether that means Emily killing her or simply framing her for a crime. This family that Emily is marrying into seems rather intense. But my money is on the idea that it is all an act.

Sean is the first casualty, and now Stephanie assumes that it was Emily that killed him. Her investigation is obviously going to lead her into more danger then she really needs to put herself in. But that's what she gets for being nosy as hell.

There are a lot of relationship dynamics at play here. Mother in law clearly hates Emily. Emily clearly wants revenge on Stephanie. New husband is clearly crazy.

The fiance is the second casualty of this film and as he had just publicly burned their prenup it looks very much like Emily is guilty. She has also been plotting with her aunt who is very conveniently her alibi for his death. They, of course, point the finger at Stephanie, although that makes absolutely no sense. As she had no motive whatsoever. But she is in a foreign country with different laws and Emily is now protected by a mob family. Her revenge plot is very much working. God this bitch is insane.

They did just imply that the druggy twin, Faith, is still alive which would be some interestingly bad writing because we saw her dead body in the first movie. So that’s just lazy. Oh we’re claiming that the third sister, Charity, is the one that has emerged to help Emily. That feels equally as lazy. Aunt Linda apparently stole Charity right after she was born.

These stories seem intentionally and needlessly convoluted. Like the writers are dead set on writing twists whether they make sense or not doesn’t seem to matter. To my point; Emily isn’t the bad guy at all, it's Charity pretending to be Emily. And Emily ends up saving Stephanie. It's just a whole lot of nothing. They are pulling plot twists out of their asses.

This seems like a Blake Lively vanity project. Now there are 3 versions of her? She really thinks she has the acting chops for that but the reality is that she plays 3 sisters who all act the same with the same mannerisms. Literally no difference. The writing sets up yet another film, which is terrible but unfortunately Blake Lively has an endless amount of money and therefore can keep giving herself work.

Making someone else the focus of the film other than Emily and Stephanie was a mistake. Look it's not like anything Blake Lively is in is good but this is next level bad. It might be the worst movie of the year, at least so far. It's only May so there’s room to fall but this is definitely going to be in the bottom tier of all 2025 films.