[wpdevart_youtube]rAqMlh0b2HU[/wpdevart_youtube]A SIMPLE FAVOR ***
Dir: Paul Feig (15, 117 mins)
A change of pace for comedy director Paul Feig, who brought us the likes of Spy, The Heat and the rebooted Ghostbusters with this fairly intriguing comic thriller, adapted from the novel by Darcey Bell. Anna Kendrick plays Stephanie, a mother and avid blogger whose best friend Emily, played by Blake Lively, goes missing from their small town. Stephanie starts investigating the reasons why, enlisting the help of Lively’s husband played by Henry Golding. Obviously all is not as it seems: Hitchcockian twists abound, Kendrick’s goody-goody character proving too goody-goody to be true and Lively’s foul-mouthed PR turns out to be a potential master manipulator. Veering from out-and-out comedy to tense melodrama, A Simple Favor works primarily because of the chemistry between Kendrick and Lively, sparking against one another as their battle of wits gets increasingly serious. Feig again ably directs a strong female cast and Rupert Friend (Homeland) puts in an outrageous turn as a fashion guru called Dennis Nylon. Enjoyable suburban noir with comic flashes. Opens Sept 21