“Another Simple Favor” (2025) is the sequel to “A Simple Favor” (2018), which was an adaptation of Darcey Bell’s 2017 novel, but this time, cowriters Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis are going off book and decide to pen their own script using many of the original characters from the book, and most of the actors resume their roles. Five years since the events of the original film, Stephanie Smothers (Anna Kendric) has turned into an author and stopped vlogging about crafts and cooking to crime but feels qualms about continuing her crime fighting career. During Stephanie’s book reading, Emily struts down the aisle to propose that Stephanie be her maid of honor at her wedding in Capri, and she makes an offer that Stephanie cannot refuse. Despite being worried that Emily is out for revenge and will try to kill her, Stephanie accepts, and the pair resume their frenemy dynamic until bodies start to drop. Is this the end of their friendship?
Instead of an awkward every woman at first glance, Stephanie is the queen bee with Darren (Andrew Rannells) as her head cheerleader, book agent Vicky (Alex Newell) and protective Detective Summerville (Bashir Salahuddin) as her unofficial partner in investigating unsolved mysteries. They mostly exist to serve her without criticism or pushback. Darren occasionally gets time off for good behavior, so he gets to return to his Greek chorus and dish with Sona (Aparna Nancherla) and Stacy (Kelly McCormack, who is astonishing in the upcoming “Sorry Baby”). Stephanie gets a new trauma this time around, but “Another Simple Favor” does not spend a lot of time dwelling on it so zone out for that portion. Kendrick breathes life into a character that could otherwise fall flat in hands less adept at dry humor, and she is one of the main attractions for returning to these characters.
Blake Lively is still terrific and goddess-like as Emily though in dire need of conditioner. The outfits and accessories are more over the top and gorgeous this time around. It is easy to believe that this femme fatale can finesse her way out of jail, openly threaten one of her former victims and still be so magnetic. Thanks to her old money fiancé, Dante Versano (Michele Morrone), her ex, Sean (Henry Golding), must bring their son, Nicky (Ian Ho), to the wedding, but Sean is not too happy about it and not hiding it. All the kids are way older but are not given much to do except be focal points for their mothers’ affection. Nicky is criminally underwritten and is puzzlingly still trusting of his mom as homicides begin to pile up.
It would not be a wedding if the family did not wreak havoc. Portia Versano (Elena Sofia Ricci) is understandably horrified at her son’s decision to marry a murderer. Emily’s drunk mom, Margaret McLinden (Elizabeth Perkins takes over for Jean Smart, who played this role in the first movie), who hates her daughter, and Aunt Linda (Allison Janney) who seems to try to rein in her sister, see Emily for the first time in decades with mixed results. Then there are the other families who are there, but not blood related, rival business owner, Matteo Bartolo (Lorenzo de Moor). Apparently, Emily is marrying into the mafia, which sounds a lot more exciting than it is. Connecticut had more interesting denizens. Unfortunately, “Another Simple Favor” is more of a soap opera murder mystery than a battle of mutable opposites so it gets stupid too early in the proceedings and never recovers.
“Another Simple Favor” is a pure cynical endeavor. Everyone must have gotten paid more, got a vacation in a stunning location and hopefully got to keep their eye-catching wardrobe from Costume Designer Renee Ehrlich Kalfus because otherwise no one should have accepted the job. It is a mess. For fans of the first flick, the story was an incisive, pulpy tale about women abandoning their preassigned accepted gender roles as mom, embracing their tenebrous selves and analyzing/challenging each other to be their fullest, complex, selfish selves. This time, Emily gets a moral makeover that reframes her homicidal tendencies as if it was a misunderstanding, and they are really sniping besties with even more incest jokes as if Sharzer and Kalogridis had no idea why people enjoyed the original narrative. One incest joke is really making light of rape, and it is tasteless, but getting outraged feels like threading a fine needle when there is so much wrong long before that plot point arrives. It feels like quibbling.
If “Another Simple Favor” works for people, it is because of the undeniable, pleasurable ying yang dynamic that Kendrick and Lively created. Instead of making their lives more absurd, they should lean into Stephanie being a private investigator/influencer with Emily being her insane partner. Think “Moonlighting” meets “Luther” because part of their dynamic is a sapphic sexual tension that neither act upon. Though the protagonist and antagonist are ostensibly heterosexual, the men in their lives are only props to their battle of wits. Also, the constant threat that Emily will decide to off her friend mirrors the relationship between Luther (Idris Elba) and Alice Morgan (Ruth Wilson) with slightly lower stakes because of the comedic notes and children. They do love their children that they spend almost no time with.
Also some viewers watch movies to live vicariously through the characters on screen and do not care in the slightest about the story or even remember many details about the first movie. Director Paul Feig, who never makes sequels, commits to the spectacle and basically creates a glossy informercial for Capri and clothes. It looks better than any streaming movie has a right to look. Lively’s outfits are basically the elevated second coming of Eighties era Madonna with lots of pearls, lace, crucifix necklaces, layered looks. It is honestly hard to pick a favorite though the wedding dress may be the most sublime example of clothes telling a better story than the screenplay. Most people cannot afford to go to such a gorgeous place, but this movie offers that fantasy, and most will eat it up. It looks so good, and the ensemble cast play their roles as if it makes sense that it is easy to confuse “Another Simple Favor” with a good movie unless you are paying attention, not multitasking while watching at home.
“Another Simple Favor” feels as if it is the human creation of a narrative before we completely give up and just assign all writing to AI. With so much talent behind and in front of the camera, it is such a waste that the story jumps the shark so early and so often. If it deserves to go straight to streaming, it is because of the storytelling, but visually it belongs on the big screen, and the vibe feels very classic Hollywood with all the catty banter. See it because it is fabulous, but the plot is a fever-dream induced narrative that feels patched together with bad taste, stereotypes and daytime television as its muse. There will definitely be a sequel, and if it is more adrift from sense or reality than this one, it will be impressive in a limbo way. Style over substance!
