It's a film trapped between two genres that doesn't quite succeed at either, although to its credit, the likable cast - and especially the performance of Blake Lively - make it a worthy digital rental or Netflix watch.
The performances by Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively are so invigorating, so generous with pointed inflections and snappy gestures, that they fill the movie's good-humored, amply plotted emptiness.
As messy and predictable as its plot can get, A Simple Favor is an engaging throwback to the aforementioned tongue-in-cheek mysteries, drawing much of its energy from the chemistry between Kendrick and Lively. It need not be any more than that.
A Simple Favor seems to yearn for a bygone era of nail-biter, but rather than wallow in pastiche, it comes up with something truly contemporary feeling.
It's gratifying to see Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick both earning their keep in director Paul Feig's borderline-nutso crime comedy, one that won't be confused for a new Gone Girl. But even second-rate trashy turnarounds are worth savoring.
Until an ending that flies ruinously off the rails, Paul Feig's bouncy comedy-thriller brings out the scrappy best in Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively and offers an unexpected take on the twists and turns of female friendship.
