67
Metascore
41 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- The film is full of panache, from its sexy French score to its glistening gin martinis, and it weaponizes style, using it to keep audiences off balance as the mystery unfolds.
- 80Total FilmMatt MaytumTotal FilmMatt MaytumPaul Feig makes a slight gear change for a slick thriller that’s best enjoyed with a martini in hand.
- 80Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaArizona RepublicRandy CordovaFor all its ludicrous plot twists and a mystery that falls too conveniently into place, A Simple Favor is just fun. It's light and frothy.
- 75Movie NationRoger MooreMovie NationRoger MooreA Simple Favor is a thriller that ticks likes a Timex, a precision exercise in button-pushing manipulation and a laugh out loud mystery that mocks its own manipulations, giggles at its own far-fetched twists.
- 70VarietyAmy NicholsonVarietyAmy NicholsonThe film feels a lot like the Serge Gainsbourg number that Stephanie dances to in the kitchen: jazzy, a little sleazy, and worth a cult following.
- 67Film Journal InternationalDavid NohFilm Journal InternationalDavid NohKendrick’s interplay with Lively’s big, alluringly langurous temptress is deliciously diverting, but the script could have used some judicious editing; a surfeit of credibility-straining, overly antic plot developments crowd the last third of the film, which until then had an intriguingly languid pace.
- 58IndieWireKate ErblandIndieWireKate ErblandFeig 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.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschThe Hollywood ReporterJon FroschA 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.
- 43TheWrapRobert AbeleTheWrapRobert AbeleUnlike “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.
- 40Screen DailyTim GriersonScreen DailyTim GriersonA 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.