David Farnor | On 23, May 2025

Director: Paul Feig
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Allison Janney
Certificate: 15

It’s been seven years since Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick proved to be a dynamic double-act in the slippery, darkly comic noir A Simple Favor. Now, director Paul Feig brings them back together for a second chapter – but if the first film largely got by on vibes, this reunion occasinoally feels like it’s running on vapours.

Picking up five years after the first film, we find Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendrick) a semi-successful true crime influencer, who has just published a book about her deadly friendship with Emily (Blake Lively). When Emily gets out of prison on appeal, Stephanie’s not sure whether to be afraid of her former BFF, grateful for the impact it’ll have her on book’s sales, worries about a potential lawsuit or happy to see Emily again. Before she can work out how she feels, Emily invites her to be maid of honour at her wedding to Dante (Michele Morrone), a rich Italian mafioso. At the behest of Stephanie’s agent, Vicky (Alex Newell), she accepts.

And so it is that we’re whisked away to Capri for a sun-filled sequel that inevitably becomes steeped in death – and a whole heap of awkward confrontations, as the wedding is also attended by Sean (Henry Golding), Emily’s bitter ex-husband, Margaret (Elizabeth Perkins), Emily’s not-all-there mother, and Emily’s ruthless aunt Linda (Allison Janney). Needless to say, none of them get on with Dante’s protective mother, Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci).

While the stacked cast, gorgeous costume and intriguing murder-mystery vibes are all present and correct, the script (by Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis) struggles to work out the exact tone it wants. It is stylish or self-aware? Sinister or funny? The first outing’s success was to root all these things in the twisting, unpredictable nature of Emily and Stephanie’s relationship – which, in turn, was rooted in the excellent chemistry between its two stars. While Lively is magnetic and Kendrick is brilliantly catty, it’s only in the final act that they really get to shine – the more time the film spends trying to wrap a puzzle around them, instead of just hanging with them, the less fun it becomes. Once things click into place to allow that to happen, Another Simple Favor becomes a hugely entertaining, and wonderfully far-fetched, summertime caper. Just be prepared for it to caught up in its own silliness.

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