Two movies in, and nobody can accuse the “Simple Favor” franchise of not knowing what it wants to be.
Speaking to a SXSW audience after the world premiere of “Another Simple Favor,” Blake Lively recalled being nervous on the set of Paul Feig’s original 2018 film because she wasn’t sure if it was intended to play as a comedy or a drama. But when Feig reunited the cast of what turned out to be a very dark comedy for a direct-to-streaming sequel that takes place on the Italian island of Capri, it appeared that everyone had the same goal: turn this into the most consistently nonsensical franchise on the planet.
“A Simple Favor” was not exactly a film known for its restraint. What began as an uncomplicated request from one mom to another — the high-powered publicist Emily (Lively) asking Stephanie the do-gooder supermom to pick her son up from school — spiraled into a convoluted murder mystery involving insurance fraud, long-lost twins, sibling incest, allegations of heroin addiction, and an endless stream of fakeouts that left Emily behind bars for murdering her father and sister and turns Stephanie into a true-crime vlogger who finally has the courage to date a guy from the city. The third act pulls you in a million directions at once with the hope you won’t have the time to stop and critically think about any of them, but that’s all part of the fun. After all, this all started with one simple favor.
The sequel makes no such false promises of simplicity, plunging audiences into chaos from the get-go. Seven years after the events of the first film, we pick up with Stephanie at a poorly-attended stop on her book tour. Her attempts to parlay her public entanglement with Emily into a writing career haven’t quite worked, with her agent (Alex Newell) lamenting the fact that nobody wants to buy the book because everyone knows the ending. As if on cue, Emily struts into the bookstore, revealing that her 20-year prison sentence has magically been erased thanks to the money and connections of her mysterious new Italian fiancé. They’re set to get married in Capri, and she wants Stephanie to hop in a private jet with her to serve as maid of honor.
Given the history between the two of them, there’s nothing simple about that favor. In a world with any logic, the film would have ended at the five minute mark when Stephanie gave her an emphatic “no.” But we had to get everyone to Capri somehow, so Stephanie decides to go to get content for her vlog and avoid Emily’s vague threat of a lawsuit. And naturally, her agent needs to come too.
The opulent jet, complete with a bar and a master bedroom, makes it clear that Emily’s handsome beau Dante Versano (Michelle Morrone) is loaded. He’s also deeply private, with a Google search about how he made his money yielding no results. Turns out he’s involved in Italy’s oldest profession, and the fate of this wedding is resting on a very flimsy truce between two warring mafia families.
But the mob drama barely accounts for 10 percent of the craziness in “Another Simple Favor,” which also features its fair share of family sabotage, secret identities, assassinations, corrupt cops, unexpected fingering, and myriad other twists that will remain unspoiled. Describing the plot as utter nonsense would both be 100 percent correct and likely taken as a massive compliment for all involved. A swing for the fences that’s unconstrained by any form of reality is a pleasant thing to watch, even if its existence feels like little more than an excuse for the cast to hang out in Capri while Blake Lively models an indescribable collection of hats
So much of the first movie’s success was a result of the tension between Stephanie’s naivety and Emily’s mysteriousness, and the sequel inevitably loses some of both thanks to the fact that these women have now known each other for almost a decade and covered up multiple crimes together. But “Another Simple Favor” is able to mask most of that with a “make it up in volume” approach to insanity, and it’s easy to see this series carry on as an enjoyably ludicrous store brand “White Lotus” travel anthology. A day might soon come when there’s no meat left on the bone of Emily and Stephanie’s relationship, but for now, the “Simple Favor” series is the closest thing moviegoers have to a true daytime soap opera.
Grade: B-
“Another Simple Favor” premiered at SXSW 2025. It streams on Prime Video on Friday, May 1.
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