“Oh, you do not want to be friends with me, trust me.”
Normally, that response warrants the sternest “aca-scuse me?” possible, but today is different. Today is when the darker side of Paul Feig reigns. On Friday — the 13th, too, how about that? — Lionsgate presented the third and lengthiest look at the thriller A Simple Favor, also known as the newest member of the Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train coterie.
Set to the impish Poisson Rouge from Saint Privat (a truncated version of the song was in the first teaser), the trailer opens with mommy blogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) being hypnotized by the confident, chic strides of the Emily (Blake Lively). Despite stark contrasts in mannerism and wealth, both women click, Emily’s disinterest in transparency be damned. “She’s like a beautiful ghost,” that’s what Sean (Henry Golding) has to say about his wife. Jinx, man: Soon after, Emily actually ghosted, right after she asked Stephanie to come over for a simple favor. Into action, the blogger springs, and her search will turn up a lot of sins, lies and one (whose?!) corpse.
If the adaptations of Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins’ domestic noirs have taught us one thing, it’s that you must question what you’re seeing 25/8. A Simple Favor, itself originally the work of author Darcey Bell, also seems to be following that path; Feig’s direction and Jessica Sharzer’s writing are employing a lot of elegance to have us doubt the presence of sinister doings. Yes, that cocktail-mixing business shown is not as innocuous as it looks.
You’ll be asked to do A Simple Favor on Sept. 14. For more on the film and an eventual review, stay with The Young Folks.
Advertisement