NEW YORK (OSV News) – Back in 2018, director Paul Feig helmed the black comedy “A Simple Favor.” Although sleek and clever, the film paraded outrageous sinfulness, including incest and murder, inviting viewers to enjoy the spectacle.
Now Feig returns with “Another Simple Favor” (Amazon MGM). Alas, while much of the moral waywardness of the original is still present — if, for the most part, only by way of supposedly humorous references to the past — the aesthetic assets on display seven years ago have largely disappeared.
Fundamentally, there’s an emotionally incoherent tone to the proceedings, which reunite the two very different mothers of young children, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) and Emily (Blake Lively), whose odd-couple friendship was charted in the kick-off. That’s because the wicked deeds chronicled in that movie have rendered the former pals frenemies.
As a result, it seems unlikely that Emily would invite Stephanie to serve as the matron of honor at her forthcoming destination wedding on the Italian island of Capri. But so she does. In the same vein, when the duo go on to collaborate in trying to solve the pair of slayings that eventually mar Emily’s nuptials, their partnership strains credulity.
As for the insult-reliant, often foul-mouthed dialogue of Jessica Sharzer and Laeta Kalogridis’ script, it’s hardly calculated to amuse moviegoers of taste. Some enjoyable visuals of Capri’s lovely landscape aside, “Another Simple Favor” amounts to little more than a logical and moral mess.
The film contains skewed values, including a frivolous treatment of incest and a benign view of homosexual relationships, brief but intense gory violence, a scene of masturbation, rear and shadowy frontal nudity, same-sex kissing, about a dozen uses of profanity, numerous milder oaths, pervasive rough language and frequent crude and crass terms. The OSV News classification is O — morally offensive. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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