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A Simple Favor is a 2018 black comedy mystery thriller about parenting vlogger Stephanie Smothers, played by Anna Kendrick, investigating the disappearance of her glamorous and secretive friend Emily Nelson, played by Blake Lively. Directed by Paul Feig and written by Jessica Sharzer, the film turns friendship, class, motherhood, and self-invention into tools of suspense.
The result is a glossy, twist-heavy hybrid rather than a conventional whodunit. The Connecticut school-parent setting provides the social surface, while Emily’s disappearance exposes how much both women rely on image, disclosure, secrecy, and performance.
Key takeaways
- A Simple Favor is a 2018 black comedy mystery thriller directed by Paul Feig and written by Jessica Sharzer.
- Anna Kendrick plays Stephanie Smothers, while Blake Lively plays Emily Nelson, the glamorous friend whose disappearance drives the story.
- The film combines missing-person suspense with comic exaggeration, fashion-conscious style, social satire, and deliberately extravagant reversals.
- The screenplay is based on Darcey Bell’s novel, but the film should be understood as a shaped screen adaptation rather than a claim of one-to-one fidelity.
- Another Simple Favor, the direct sequel, began streaming on Prime Video on May 1, 2025.
What is A Simple Favor about?
A Simple Favor is a 2018 mystery thriller about Stephanie Smothers, a widowed single mother and parenting vlogger in Connecticut, whose glamorous, secretive friend Emily Nelson disappears. As Stephanie investigates Emily’s past, friendship, motherhood, class, sexuality, money, and self-invention become competing forms of performance and concealment.
Stephanie and Emily meet because their children attend the same elementary school. Stephanie’s warm, over-sharing public persona contrasts sharply with Emily’s controlled confidence and intimidating sophistication. When Emily asks Stephanie for a seemingly ordinary favor and then vanishes, the request becomes the starting point for a much larger mystery.
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The film’s central question is not merely who disappeared. The more interesting question is how well either woman can distinguish genuine intimacy from strategic self-presentation. Stephanie’s vlog suggests radical openness, while Emily’s polished life suggests total control; the investigation gradually complicates both impressions.
Is A Simple Favor a thriller or a comedy?
A Simple Favor is best described as a black comedy mystery thriller. The film uses missing-person and crime-thriller mechanics, but it delivers suspense through comic timing, heightened behavior, stylish visual choices, and revelations that can feel intentionally outrageous rather than strictly realistic.
The tonal mixture is the film’s defining feature. A conventional domestic thriller might ask the audience to remain anxious and suspicious; A Simple Favor repeatedly interrupts that anxiety with amused disbelief. A serious revelation can be followed by a comic reaction, a social embarrassment, or a conspicuously glamorous image. The result is neither a straight whodunit nor a conventional comedy.
Director Paul Feig explained the starting point in a 2018 interview: “I really wanted to find a thriller.” He also described the story’s appeal as having “so many twists and turns.” Those comments help explain why the film treats plot escalation as both suspense machinery and entertainment. Read Paul Feig’s 2018 interview about A Simple Favor for that production context.
| Element | How A Simple Favor uses it | Effect on the viewer |
|---|---|---|
| Mystery | Emily’s disappearance sends Stephanie into an investigation of Emily’s hidden past. | Creates questions about identity, motive, and trust. |
| Thriller | Crime plotting and successive reversals keep the story moving. | Builds suspicion and momentum. |
| Black comedy | Heightened reactions, social awkwardness, and outrageous turns puncture the danger. | Invites laughter alongside uncertainty. |
| Social satire | Parenting culture, wealth, domestic respectability, and online disclosure become objects of scrutiny. | Shows how status and likability can be performed. |
| Style | Clothes, homes, food, alcohol, and curated spaces communicate power and aspiration. | Makes the film feel glossy, controlled, and knowingly artificial. |
Who are Stephanie and Emily?
Stephanie Smothers is played by Anna Kendrick, and Emily Nelson is played by Blake Lively. Stephanie is earnest, sociable, and unusually willing to share personal information through her parenting-vlog persona. Emily is successful, glamorous, guarded, and difficult to read. The contrast between the performances supplies much of the film’s energy.
Stephanie initially appears to occupy a lower position in the social hierarchy surrounding the school. Emily has the confidence, wardrobe, home, and lifestyle that make her seem untouchable. Yet the film does not leave that contrast untouched: Stephanie’s openness can be a form of performance, and Emily’s sophistication can be a method of concealment.
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The chemistry between Kendrick and Lively matters because the friendship is simultaneously intimate, competitive, admiring, and suspicious. Each woman becomes a possible audience, imitator, investigator, or threat to the other. Their relationship gives the mystery an emotional shape that a simple disappearance plot would not have on its own.
What themes does A Simple Favor explore?
Identity as performance. The film treats identity less as a stable fact than as something characters display, edit, and weaponize. Stephanie’s public disclosures do not guarantee that she is transparent, and Emily’s polished secrecy does not mean that her image is entirely false. Visibility and truth are repeatedly separated.
Motherhood as a social system. The school community is more than a location where the two women meet. It creates a network of judgment, gossip, informal hierarchy, exclusion, and obligation. Parenting gives Stephanie and Emily a reason to interact, while the expectations surrounding motherhood provide pressure and cover.
Class and lifestyle display. Emily’s clothes, home, food, alcohol, work, and social confidence function as signs of status. The film presents affluent suburban life as curated and desirable, then uses the same surfaces to suggest instability beneath the polish.
Female friendship and competitive performance. Stephanie and Emily’s bond is not easily reduced to trust or betrayal. Their friendship involves attraction to each other’s strengths, attempts to decode each other, and competition over who can control the story.
Online self-presentation. Stephanie’s vlog makes her seem accessible, but the film asks whether constant sharing is the same as honesty. Public disclosure can generate attention and social connection while still hiding the motives behind the performance.
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Who made A Simple Favor?
A Simple Favor was directed by Paul Feig and written by Jessica Sharzer. The principal stars are Anna Kendrick as Stephanie Smothers and Blake Lively as Emily Nelson; the credited ensemble also includes Henry Golding, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini, and Jean Smart. Lionsgate distributed the film, with Feigco Entertainment and Lionsgate listed among its production companies. The film information and credited cast listing for A Simple Favor provides the relevant release and credit context.
The film runs for 1 hour 57 minutes. The U.S. theatrical release was September 14, 2018, and the rating was R for language throughout, drug use, sexual content, some graphic nude images, and violence. Rating standards and availability can differ outside the United States.
Is A Simple Favor based on a book?
Yes. A Simple Favor is based on Darcey Bell’s novel of the same name. Jessica Sharzer is credited as the screenplay writer, while the production screenplay also credits revisions by Peter Craig and Paul Feig. The screenplay explicitly identifies Bell’s novel as its source; see the A Simple Favor production screenplay.
The useful way to approach the book-versus-movie question is as an adaptation question, not as a promise of identical plots. A novel can build mystery through narration, interior thought, and controlled disclosure. The film reshapes that material for actors, visual performance, costumes, settings, editing, comic timing, and cinematic reversals. The screen version’s distinctive balance of suspense, style, and comedy is therefore part of the adaptation’s design.
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For readers who want to examine the source material, Darcey Bell’s A Simple Favor is the most natural companion to the film. A current edition, seller, price, and availability should be checked before purchase because marketplace listings can change.
How successful was A Simple Favor?
A Simple Favor performed strongly for a mid-budget, adult-oriented studio mystery. According to Box Office Mojo’s 2018 box-office record, the film had a $20,000,000 production budget, a $16,011,689 opening gross, a $53,548,586 domestic gross, a $44,096,031 international gross, and a $97,644,617 worldwide gross. The film reached 3,102 theaters at its widest release.
Those grosses should not be described as profit. Marketing costs, distribution arrangements, exhibitor shares, and later revenue are not captured by a simple comparison between budget and worldwide gross.
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According to Rotten Tomatoes’ snapshot dated August 16, 2026, the film had an 84% Tomatometer score from 258 reviews and a 72% audience score from more than 5,000 ratings. Rotten Tomatoes scores and rating totals can change, so the figures are a dated reception snapshot rather than permanent measurements.
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|---|---|---|
| Production budget | $20,000,000 | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| Opening gross | $16,011,689 | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| Domestic gross | $53,548,586 | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| International gross | $44,096,031 | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| Worldwide gross | $97,644,617 | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| Widest release | 3,102 theaters | Box Office Mojo, 2018 |
| Runtime | 1 hour 57 minutes | Rotten Tomatoes film information |
What should you watch after A Simple Favor?
After A Simple Favor, watch Another Simple Favor, the direct sequel starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively and directed by Paul Feig. The sequel moves Stephanie and Emily’s story to Capri, where Emily’s extravagant wedding to an old-money businessman becomes entangled with murder and betrayal.
Another Simple Favor began streaming on Prime Video on May 1, 2025, according to Amazon’s official announcement about the sequel. The Associated Press also described the continuation as a Feig-directed film starring Kendrick and Lively and set around a wedding in Capri, Italy. Streaming catalogs, access conditions, and regional availability can change, so check the current Prime Video listing before watching.
The sequel is the clearest follow-up because it continues the Stephanie–Emily relationship rather than merely repeating the first film’s general genre. The source novel is the better next choice for readers interested in adaptation, narration, and the material that preceded the film.
Is A Simple Favor worth watching?
A Simple Favor is worth watching if you want a polished missing-person mystery that does not remain confined to realistic domestic-thriller rules. The film is especially suited to viewers who enjoy unreliable self-presentation, sharp contrasts between characters, fashion and lifestyle as storytelling devices, and plot twists delivered with comic exaggeration.
Viewers seeking a restrained, psychologically realistic investigation may find the tonal shifts and heightened reversals too theatrical. Viewers willing to accept the film as a glossy hybrid are more likely to appreciate what makes it distinctive: suspense, social observation, performance, and absurdity all operate at the same time.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is A Simple Favor based on a book?
Yes. A Simple Favor is based on Darcey Bell’s novel of the same name. Jessica Sharzer wrote the screenplay, with production-screenplay credits also listing revisions by Peter Craig and Paul Feig; the film is a shaped screen adaptation rather than a claim of one-to-one fidelity.
Is A Simple Favor a thriller or a comedy?
A Simple Favor is a black comedy mystery thriller. The film combines missing-person and crime-thriller mechanics with comic exaggeration, glossy style, social satire, and deliberately heightened reversals.
Is Another Simple Favor a sequel?
Another Simple Favor is the direct sequel to A Simple Favor. The sequel reunites Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively, moves the story to a wedding in Capri, and began streaming on Prime Video on May 1, 2025, according to Amazon.
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Where can I watch A Simple Favor?
The original film’s current streaming destination is not asserted universally because availability varies by country and changes over time. The official research confirms that Another Simple Favor began streaming on Prime Video on May 1, 2025; viewers should check current listings for both films.
The Bottom Line
A Simple Favor works best as a stylish black comedy mystery thriller rather than a conventional whodunit. Its missing-person plot matters, but the film’s lasting appeal comes from the unstable friendship between Stephanie and Emily and its sharp use of class, motherhood, fashion, and self-invention as forms of performance.
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