“It’s gonna be great.”

From A Simple Favor.

Widowed mother Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) spends all of her free time caring for her son Miles (Joshua Satine), volunteering for his class, and vlogging tasty recipes for other moms.  When Miles insists that he wants a play date with classmate Nicky (Ian Ho), Stephanie is introduced to the elusive, corporate mother Emily (Blake Lively).  While Stephanie is full of energy and excitement nothing could her prepare her for the cool and mysterious life that Emily leads; when not working, Emily has a strong love for martinis and her one-time best-selling author of a husband, Sean (Henry Golding).  As their children become closer friends, so do the mothers who have a chance to form a friendship of total opposites.  So when Emily asks Stephanie to pick up both boys from school, nothing seems out of the ordinary until after several days, Emily has neither come to pick up her son nor made contact with anyone else in her life.  Using the influence of the followers of her blog, Stephanie tries help determine what happened to her friend and while she is unable to find any clues to Emily’s disappearance, she quickly learns that Emily’s life was shrouded in secrets.  Stuck between her desire to help Sean and Nicky deal with the horrors of the situation and her desire to find out the truth about Emily, Stephanie discovers a dark truth that challenges everything she knows about her missing best friend.

Based on the book of the same name, this movie is a constant display of plot twists and shocking revelations.  Kendrick and Lively carry the heavy leads well, bringing the intricacies of their characters to life uniquely and convincingly.  While a portion of this movie does feel like an advertisement for Lively’s real-life husband’s gin company, the majority of the film feels unique in its constant dark humor.  A Simple Favor uses flashbacks and surprising, quick twists to create a story that will keep audiences guessing until the very last moment.

| Rated: R | Running Time: 119 minutes |Genre: thriller/mystery |

||Family Viewing||Cursing: 8* of 10|Nudity: 4 of 10|Sexuality: 2 of 10|Gore: 2 of 10

|AVAILABLE FOR HOME VIEWING|