A Simple Favor
Lionsgate | Release Date: September 14, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critics
Positive:
27
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinKim HughesSep 13, 2018
Feig has done a superb job of building a compelling story from angular bits that shouldn’t fit together but do while making pointed commentary on everything from gender roles to social media. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerSep 13, 2018
Just strap in, because A Simple Favor's plot isn't just twisty: It's so labyrinthine that you expect a minotaur to pop up. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 13, 2018
Thanks to the stylish direction by Paul Feig, a whip-smart screenplay by Jessica Sharzer (adapting Darcey Bells’ novel) and performances that pop from the screen, A Simple Favor is a sharp-edged delight. Read full review
87
IGNWilliam BibbianiSep 14, 2018
A Simple Favor is a sharply dressed comedy-thriller, and the screenplay is even sharper. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively dominate the screen in two of their best and funniest roles, and director Paul Feig is in rare form, using spry humor to make this subversive and creepy thriller more unusual and unpredictable. Read full review
83
Consequence of SoundAllison ShoemakerSep 14, 2018
If Double Indemnity were a hangout movie, this would be its sequel. It’s delicious. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklySep 9, 2018
The film is full of panache, from its sexy French score to its glistening gin martinis, and it weaponizes style, using it to keep audiences off balance as the mystery unfolds. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeOct 2, 2018
The lip-smacking, acid drops of malice in the latest film from Paul Feig (Bridesmaids) makes this unexpectedly cruel comedy as intoxicating as the mid-afternoon martinis swilled by the two central characters. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaSep 15, 2018
With its martini-swilling leads and swingy French pop soundtrack, A Simple Favor seems to yearn for a bygone era of nail-biter, but rather than wallow in pastiche, it comes up with something truly contemporary feeling. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBrian ThompsonSep 14, 2018
Chic, sexy, and just the right amount of sleazy, A Simple Favor is a stunning thrill ride, a viciously engrossing experience that has become so rare in studio filmmaking. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaSep 11, 2018
For all its ludicrous plot twists and a mystery that falls too conveniently into place, A Simple Favor is just fun. It's light and frothy. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumSep 11, 2018
Paul Feig makes a slight gear change for a slick thriller that’s best enjoyed with a martini in hand. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzSep 14, 2018
Its mystery elements are infused with a uniquely Feig-ian sensibility, equal parts broad comedy and ironic winks. The genre-meld shouldn’t work as well as it does, but Feig wrangles all the disparate elements under his control. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleySep 14, 2018
It's suspenseful, but also hilarious. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshSep 13, 2018
The consciously campy A Simple Favor is as bright and bracing as an ice cold gin martini with a lemon twist, and just as satisfying. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldSep 13, 2018
One of the great pleasures of moviegoing is seeing an actor perfectly cast, in a role that takes all of the performer’s trademarks and quirks and transforms them into something we haven’t seen before. Such a performance is at the center of Paul Feig’s sly thriller/comedy A Simple Favor, and the actor is Anna Kendrick. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleCarla MeyerSep 12, 2018
After dipping its toe into thriller cliche, Simple Favor dives in, with crosses, double crosses and “twists” one can anticipate a mile away. Yet, there’s always just enough of a wink apparent that the film remains highly involving throughout. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTom RussoSep 12, 2018
Kendrick’s interplay with Lively crackles, whether they’re going for laughs or something darker. Both are big selling points — as is their director, even if it’s not as advertised. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeSep 12, 2018
If your tastes in crime fiction lean more toward whiskey-soaked detectives, A Simple Favor might be bubbly enough to give you a headache despite the darkness of its themes. But that’s okay. More prosecco for the rest of us. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonSep 12, 2018
There's something to be said for the movie's heavy pour of mommy noir — a jigger of Bombeck, a dash of Highsmith. It's a cocktail with a kick. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 11, 2018
A Simple Favor is a thriller that ticks likes a Timex, a precision exercise in button-pushing manipulation and a laugh out loud mystery that mocks its own manipulations, giggles at its own far-fetched twists. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineOktay Ege Kozak Sep 14, 2018
As messy and predictable as its plot can get, A Simple Favor is an engaging throwback to the aforementioned tongue-in-cheek mysteries, drawing much of its energy from the chemistry between Kendrick and Lively. It need not be any more than that. Read full review
70
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 14, 2018
Until an ending that flies ruinously off the rails, A Simple Favor is raunchy fun that offers an unexpected take on the twists and turns of female friendship. Read full review
70
SlateInkoo KangSep 13, 2018
A Simple Favor reintroduces Lively as a character actress—a sexy, funny, award-worthy revelation. Read full review
70
VarietyAmy NicholsonSep 9, 2018
The film feels a lot like the Serge Gainsbourg number that Stephanie dances to in the kitchen: jazzy, a little sleazy, and worth a cult following. Read full review
67
Film Journal InternationalDavid NohSep 11, 2018
Kendrick’s interplay with Lively’s big, alluringly langurous temptress is deliciously diverting, but the script could have used some judicious editing; a surfeit of credibility-straining, overly antic plot developments crowd the last third of the film, which until then had an intriguingly languid pace. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 13, 2018
Although there’s admittedly some perverse entertainment value to be found in this soap-opera derived mystery, the movie never rises to the level of something gripping like "Gone Girl." It’s occasionally fun in a trashy sort of way, but nothing more. Read full review
63
Washington PostSonia RaoSep 12, 2018
The most surprising performance is Lively’s. As the cheeky Emily, the star of such recent thrillers as “All I See Is You” and “The Shallows” finally gets the chance to be funny. She proves quite adept at it Read full review
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeSep 21, 2018
Kendrick and Lively have never been funnier, snapping one-liners at each other like elastic bands; the script is hyper-alert to the undercurrent of competitiveness between stay-at-home and working mums. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 14, 2018
Once A Simple Favor hits the first of several I-can’t-believe-they-went there moments (there are a few too many), it loses some of its lure, and Feig never quite regains tonal control. But you won’t be bored by this. Read full review
60
TimeLouis VirtelSep 13, 2018
The biggest pleasure from A Simple Favor is watching Lively, who was so searing in the taut thriller The Shallows and elevated 2016’s baffling All I See Is You. She’s a slyly versatile performer, capable of landing a killer punch line. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 13, 2018
Mr. Feig handily manages the mood and scene shifts, using regular laughs to brighten the deepening dark. By far his smartest move was to give Ms. Kendrick and Ms. Lively room to create a prickly intimacy for their characters, a bond that’s persuasive enough to push the story through its more forced moments. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 9, 2018
Feig goes for the spaghetti method of storytelling: Throw a whole bunch of stuff at the wall and something has got to stick. Only some does, but the good stuff — the really campy, trashy, nutty stuff — is the kind of thing popcorn cinema hasn’t so happily embraced in years. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerSep 22, 2018
Feig, who’s been known to conjure up categorical spoofs (Spy, Bridesmaids), throws up Fincher-like curveballs, each one more disturbing than the last, only to strike out in the ninth. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleSep 13, 2018
For the big tonal swings in A Simple Favor to work, the characters needed to be more plausibly grounded. Lively and Kendrick’s early scenes ping-pong nicely with odd-couple chemistry, but “A Simple Favor” loses the thread, and never shakes the feeling of a rushed Gillian Flynn knockoff.
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 12, 2018
It’s a lot of fun . . . until it becomes a mystery thriller so convoluted and tonally wacky, Angela Lansbury would have quit in a huff. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithSep 12, 2018
A Simple Favor haphazardly vacillates between suburban satire, goofy comedy, and dark, twisted psychological thriller. Which is to say that the film doesn't evince the seamlessness of presentation of its clearest antecedent: David Fincher's "Gone Girl." Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschSep 9, 2018
A twisted tale of toxic female friendship, the film offers its share of pleasures: eye candy in human, sartorial and real-estate form, as well as the unmistakable flair of a director and performers who know their way around a piece of pop entertainment. But the result leaves you scratching your head. Read full review
43
TheWrapRobert AbeleSep 11, 2018
Unlike “Spy,” which took great pains to make its cloak-and-dagger shenanigans as exciting, and thematically meaningful, as the raucous comedy around it, A Simple Favor is like two different movies, a sophisticated sisterhood lark you want more of, and a ho-hum buried-secrets murder mystery getting in the way of your good time. Read full review
40
EmpireBen TravisSep 24, 2018
Watching Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick trade barbs is entertaining, but Feig’s first thriller suffers from an unconvincing plot and inconsistent tone. Read full review
40
Screen InternationalTim GriersonSep 10, 2018
A Simple Favor wants it both ways, hoping to be a stylish, twisty, trashy thriller while simultaneously acting superior to the genre’s slinky pleasures. Those conflicting strategies do the film no favours. Read full review
38
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenDec 26, 2018
This is noir as costume party. Read full review
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