A Simple Favor
Lionsgate | Release Date: September 14, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
13
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The GuardianCath ClarkeSep 21, 2018
Kendrick and Lively have never been funnier, snapping one-liners at each other like elastic bands; the script is hyper-alert to the undercurrent of competitiveness between stay-at-home and working mums. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfSep 14, 2018
Once A Simple Favor hits the first of several I-can’t-believe-they-went there moments (there are a few too many), it loses some of its lure, and Feig never quite regains tonal control. But you won’t be bored by this. Read full review
60
TimeLouis VirtelSep 13, 2018
The biggest pleasure from A Simple Favor is watching Lively, who was so searing in the taut thriller The Shallows and elevated 2016’s baffling All I See Is You. She’s a slyly versatile performer, capable of landing a killer punch line. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 13, 2018
Mr. Feig handily manages the mood and scene shifts, using regular laughs to brighten the deepening dark. By far his smartest move was to give Ms. Kendrick and Ms. Lively room to create a prickly intimacy for their characters, a bond that’s persuasive enough to push the story through its more forced moments. Read full review
58
IndieWireKate ErblandSep 9, 2018
Feig goes for the spaghetti method of storytelling: Throw a whole bunch of stuff at the wall and something has got to stick. Only some does, but the good stuff — the really campy, trashy, nutty stuff — is the kind of thing popcorn cinema hasn’t so happily embraced in years. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredLuke ParkerSep 22, 2018
Feig, who’s been known to conjure up categorical spoofs (Spy, Bridesmaids), throws up Fincher-like curveballs, each one more disturbing than the last, only to strike out in the ninth. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleSep 13, 2018
For the big tonal swings in A Simple Favor to work, the characters needed to be more plausibly grounded. Lively and Kendrick’s early scenes ping-pong nicely with odd-couple chemistry, but “A Simple Favor” loses the thread, and never shakes the feeling of a rushed Gillian Flynn knockoff.
50
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiSep 12, 2018
It’s a lot of fun . . . until it becomes a mystery thriller so convoluted and tonally wacky, Angela Lansbury would have quit in a huff. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineDerek SmithSep 12, 2018
A Simple Favor haphazardly vacillates between suburban satire, goofy comedy, and dark, twisted psychological thriller. Which is to say that the film doesn't evince the seamlessness of presentation of its clearest antecedent: David Fincher's "Gone Girl." Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschSep 9, 2018
A twisted tale of toxic female friendship, the film offers its share of pleasures: eye candy in human, sartorial and real-estate form, as well as the unmistakable flair of a director and performers who know their way around a piece of pop entertainment. But the result leaves you scratching your head. Read full review
43
TheWrapRobert AbeleSep 11, 2018
Unlike “Spy,” which took great pains to make its cloak-and-dagger shenanigans as exciting, and thematically meaningful, as the raucous comedy around it, A Simple Favor is like two different movies, a sophisticated sisterhood lark you want more of, and a ho-hum buried-secrets murder mystery getting in the way of your good time. Read full review
40
EmpireBen TravisSep 24, 2018
Watching Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick trade barbs is entertaining, but Feig’s first thriller suffers from an unconvincing plot and inconsistent tone. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 10, 2018
A Simple Favor wants it both ways, hoping to be a stylish, twisty, trashy thriller while simultaneously acting superior to the genre’s slinky pleasures. Those conflicting strategies do the film no favours. Read full review
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