‘Another Simple Favor’ sticks to what (mostly) works

Debuting on Prime Video this week Another Simple Favor honors its predecessor in more means than one For starters the sequel to director Paul Feig s black comedy mystery is peppered with self-aware references to how ridiculous it is that Anna Kendrick s mom vlogger Stephanie Smothers and Blake Lively s scheming and murderous Emily Nelson are spending time together again And then there s the fact that like A Simple Favor Another largely falls apart down the stretch after a promising-enough first half or so However like the first effort this second Simple Favor written by Laeta Kalogridis Shutter Island and the returning Jessica Sharzer is more entertaining than not thanks largely to the performance of Kendrick who does the sweet-and-quirky thing really well Lively too is fun at least when she s channeling Emily s sexy-and-sinister side the actor proving to be less fruitful when she s requested to do a more sincere spin on the duplicitous felon later in the affair If you need a refresher the meek Stephanie and the much slicker Emily became friends in the first Favor thanks to their sons being in school together Emily taught Stephanie not to apologize for everything and unearthed a dark and dirty secret she d been keeping Soon Emily disappeared and was ascertained dead with Stephanie and Emily s handsome writer husband Sean Henry Golding hurriedly acting on their mutual attraction Ah but it turned out Emily had faked her death for a million insurance payout by murdering her twin sister and yada yada yada she went to prison with Stephanie and Sean going their separate methods Another begins with Stephanie live streaming while under house arrest on the beautiful island of Capri off the coast of Italy I want to be clear I did not kill Emily s husband she states We then go back in time to Emily out of prison at least for the time being showing up to surprise Stephanie at a reading of her not long ago circulated book about solving the aforementioned mystery The sly Emily s not out for revenge against Stephanie mostly kinda maybe but if the latter doesn t agree to be her maid of honor when she marries a mystery man on Capri she ll sue her over the book Plus you know it will be fun Does anything scream sequel quite like a plot built around a destination wedding Another Simple Favor boasts plenty of moving pieces with Emily set to marry the suave Dante Versano Michele Morrone a high-ranking member of an Italian crime family at odds with another and Dante s powerful mother Portia Elena Sofia Ricci vehemently opposed to the union Also along for the ride is Sean with his and Emily s son Nicky Ian Ho as Sean angrily day drinks Nicky busies himself with a drone that we know will play into the proceedings before they conclude And Portia has an unpleasant surprise for Emily She has invited the latter s mother Margaret Hello Mother you look different Emily says to Margaret Elizabeth Perkins replacing Jean Smart from the first film who has arrived with Emily s aunt Linda Allison Janney Allison Janney left and Elizabeth Perkins appear in a scene from Another Simple Favor Courtesy of Amazon Content Services Soon a person is killed and the local police are content to chalk it up to an accident despite Stephanie s well-founded objections as they appear to be in league with the Versanos That makes it all the more frustrating when they pin Dante s murder on her with Emily s ultimate plan now cough seemingly clear With apologies to its appealing supporting cast Another Simple Favor is best when it s just Stephanie and Emily which allows Kendrick and Lively to cook such as Emily s two-person bachelorette party in a rented-out pool and complete with stiff martinis The pairing is less fruitful in the film s third act but we ll steer clear of those details Blake Lively stars as the untrustworthy Emily in Another Simple Favor Courtesy of Amazon Content Services As with the first entry Another Simple Favor doesn t fit all the strengths of Feig Freaks and Geeks Bridesmaids but the director keeps things moving along swiftly enough Keeping with the not-much-has-changed theme this film too is surprisingly zesty in the occasional spot but as a black comedy it would benefit from a lot more zest And at the end of the convoluted day the film is better than you may expect from a straight-to-streaming sequel That announced we ll see if it does well enough to justify the third Simple Favor that its last sparse minutes seem intent on setting up Another Simple Favor contains violence sexual content nudity language throughout and suicide ANOTHER SIMPLE FAVOR Rated R On Prime Video Grade C