Joshua Satine

''A Simple Favor'' is a 2018 American black comedy crime thriller film directed by Paul Feig from a screenplay by Jessica Sharzer, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Darcey Bell. It stars Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, Rupert Friend, and Jean Smart and follows a small-town vlogger who tries to solve the disappearance of her elegant and mysterious friend.

It was released in the United States on September 14, 2018, by Lionsgate. Critics praised the plot twists, and the performances of Kendrick, Lively and Golding. It grossed $97 million worldwide on a $20 million budget. A sequel is in development, with Kendrick and Lively set to reprise their roles, and Feig returning to direct.

Plot

Widowed single mother Stephanie Smothers runs a vlog featuring crafts and recipes for parents. She becomes friends with Emily Nelson, the mother of her son's schoolmate and a PR director for a fashion company, and the two exchange confessions over martinis. Stephanie shares that as a teenager, she had sex with her half-brother Chris. Emily is frustrated by the lack of success of her husband, English professor Sean Townsend, and their (well-hidden) poor financial situation.

Stephanie babysits Emily's son while Sean is in London. After two days of Emily not returning calls, Stephanie learns from Emily's boss, Dennis Nylon, that Emily is in Miami. Stephanie calls Sean, who contacts the police. Trying to get to the bottom of Emily's disappearance, Stephanie makes missing person flyers using a photo of Emily that she found hidden on her desk.

Detective Summerville reports that Emily lied about flying to Miami, and that her drowned body had been discovered in the lake at a summer camp in Michigan. Stephanie and Sean share their grief and begin a sexual relationship. Summerville reveals to Stephanie that Emily had severe liver damage, a large amount of heroin in her system, and that Sean had recently taken out a $4 million life insurance on Emily.

Stephanie receives an insulting message apparently from Emily about her tryst with her half-brother Chris. Stephanie recalls that her late husband suspected her infidelity and may have intentionally caused the car crash that killed both him and Chris. Investigating Emily's past, Stephanie meets Diana Hyland, who seems to have been a lover of Emily and who had painted a portrait of Emily. Diana says that the painting is actually of her muse Claudia, whom she describes as a con artist who disappeared. Diana's information leads Stephanie to a yearbook that shows Emily to be a girl named Hope McLanden, and who had an identical twin named Faith McLanden. Stephanie visits Margaret, the mother of the twins, who explains that at age 16, the twins had set fire to the family house, killing their father.

Meanwhile, while Stephanie is away on these investigative trips, Emily surprises Sean by reappearing, and tells him that she plans to collect the insurance money and leave the country.

Stephanie later contrives to meet with Emily, and Emily explains that she and her sister indeed started the fire to kill their abusive father. The sisters fled separately with a plan to reunite later, but Faith didn't turn up as agreed. Emily then built a career and family but then, 14 years later, Faith reappeared. Now an alcoholic and heroin addict, Faith threatened to turn them both in to the authorities by confessing the patricide unless paid a million dollars by Emily. After assenting to the demand, Emily drowned Faith in the lake (as revealed to the movie audience), but Emily tells Stephanie that Faith committed suicide and that Sean planned the insurance scam.

Emily and Stephanie are both angered by Sean's relationship with the other and decide to frame Sean for abusing Emily. Sean is arrested and released on bail. Stephanie has a change of heart and stages an argument with Sean in front of Emily in order to incriminate