The Reel Review
Five years after her amateur sleuthing resulted in her mysterious missing friend Emily being sent to prison, vlogger Stephanie Smothers finds herself the maid of honor at the now-released Emily’s lavish destination wedding to an Italian mobster on the island of Capri. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in this sequel to 2018’s A Simple Favor.
This sequel from director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy, The Heat) leans even harder into the silliness of the equally campy 2018 crime dramedy/mystery, with ridiculous scenarios, quippy dialogue and Lively playing a frighteningly good and (yes, really funny) super bitch. She and Kendrick have great onscreen chemistry, with Henry Golding and an always-hilarious Allison Janney leading the ensemble cast as Hope’s respective bitter now-ex-husband and aunt Linda.
Some of the cast (Alex Newell as Stephanie’s bestie/book publisher Vicky, Elizabeth Perkins as Emily’s mother and Elena Sofia Ricci as her Italian mother-in-law) feel shoehorned into the story with very little to do, and the whole glammed up destination wedding angle and fabulous costuming of Lively, while gorgeous, feels more like The Brady Bunch – Hawaii Bound episode. But the big twist, while equally ridiculous, actually results in a pretty fun finale.
REEL FACTS
• Amidst the controversy of the Justin Baldoni/Blake Lively controversy associated with the 2024 romantic dramaIt Ends with Us, Amazon turned off comments on this film’s trailer on social media.
• Elizabeth Perkins replaced Jean Smart, who played Emily’s mother in the original film.
• Another Simple Favor marks the first time Paul Feig has directed a sequel.
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