I’m probably the only person who will think of a ‘70s family film franchise while watching Paul Feig’s “Another Simple Favor.” There was a time, young readers, when sequels more commonly took their beloved characters overseas for wacky adventures, and when the convoluted hijinks of the follow-up to 2018’s “A Simple Favor” were at their peak, I had a glimpse of “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo” flash into my mind. Movies like that took what people liked and then just transported them to some of the most beautiful places in the world. Love the sleaze and glamour of Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively in the original? Now imagine them in Capri!
That kind of travelogue approach to sequel storytelling actually does give “Another Simple Favor” a very different energy, shifting from the friends-or-enemies balance of the first film to something a bit closer to a zany European comedy with tinges of Giallo. Despite the change in subject from motherhood to the mafia, “Another Simple Favor” ends up largely the same as the first in terms of what works and what falters. Lively is once again fantastic, imbuing this character with a degree of captivating uncertainty that throws off the balance of the film when she’s not on-screen, and the costumes are gorgeous, rising to the level of the stunning scenery. And, once again, the plotting and pacing have a habit of sagging when the film needs to build. It’s another very twist-heavy film that works better when its characters are just allowed to be marvelous instead of mysterious.
“Another Simple Favor” catches up with Stephanie Smothers (Kendrick) five years after the action of the first. She’s somehow still touring on her book, but sales are sagging, and she could use a sequel. That door opens when Emily (Lively) drops back into Stephanie’s life. Her fiancé’s high-priced attorneys found a way to get her out of prison on appeal, and Emily insists that Stephanie stand as her Maid of Honor. Destination wedding! The pair jet off to Capri, where they’re joined by Sean (Henry Golding), who has been forced by the courts to bring Nicky (Ian Ho) to the ceremony—Golding gets some of the best lines in the first act as Sean hurls half-drunk insults at his ex-lovers. The groom is a hunk named Dante (Michele Morrone), who happens to be the heir to a mafia empire run by his mother Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci), who is reluctantly navigating a conflict between the Versano family and a competing one at the ceremony. Stephanie points out how “The Godfather” didn’t work out great for Diane Keaton, if you’re wondering.
Joining the chaos this time are the great Elizabeth Perkins as Emily’s mother Margaret (a recasting from Jean Smart in the original that’s waved off with a clever line about having work done) and Allison Janney as Emily’s Aunt Linda. As she always does, Janney fits right in, embracing Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis’ soapy and twisty tone.
Like a lot of European comedies, “Another Simple Favor” often feels like multiple films fighting for space. The best one centers Kendrick and Lively, who have shifted their chemistry this time in an effective manner. Stephanie is no longer enraptured by this glamorous woman who has dropped into her ordinary world—she’s more worried that Emily is going to try and murder her again. Lively leans into what we know about the character, giving one of her best performances to date as she’s forced to go places here that fans won’t be able to predict. Like the first film, the plotting forces Lively out of the action for too long, and you can feel the impact—all of the best scenes in the film work because of how Kendrick and Lively work off each other rather than what they’re doing individually.
Janney and Perkins are fun, but most of the new additions are mediocre. Morrone is a charismatic performer who is given almost nothing do. Ricci actually ends up with way more screen time, and her character becomes the biggest drag on the pacing. None of the mafia stuff works. We want soapy twists about faked deaths and family secrets—we don’t care about a pending mob war. And it’s in these scenes that Feig’s issues with pacing surface again. There’s no reason for this to be two hours, and you can feel where it could have been tightened. A late-film truth serum scene should have been a third as long, for example. A twist-heavy movie like this one needs to build in pacing, piling revelations on revelations so intensely that we don’t pause to question if they make any sense.
On that note, when one thinks back on the story of “Another Simple Favor,” it’s absolutely ludicrous. So perhaps it’s a success that it’s just enough escapist fun for most viewers to ignore the nonsense. When Lively and Kendrick are clicking or Renee Ehrlich Kalfus’ costume design is allowed the spotlight—there’s a wedding dress that should earn her an Oscar nomination on its own and a couple other Lively outfits that produced audible, deserved gasps—then the flaws fade away. If you’ve been to places as memorable as Capri, they have a habit of pushing real-world issues aside through their overwhelming beauty. Despite its struggles in places, I was hopeful by the end that Stephanie and Emily would return more quickly than the 7 years between films this time. Someone should start writing “A Simple Favor Goes Bananas.”
This review was filed from the world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It opens on May 1st.
