gburrows711

This is a well-produced, well photographed and yes, well acted movie. I'm not pretending for a minute that it's high art. It's a fairly formulaic thriller where a businessman is stalked by a female colleague, but if you want a couple of hours entertainment where the tension is very well managed, you can do a lot worse. I don't understand the criticism of Ms Knowles either - she played the part of the angry wronged wife well and I was cheering her on in the final scenes. Mr. Elba is always worth watching and Ali Larter as the seductive but increasingly unhinged siren was terrific. An exciting and entertaining couple of hours. A solid seven out of ten.

I was puzzled by some poor reviews on this site and wondered whether they referred to the same film. I very much enjoyed the original A Simple Favor and this sequel capitalises on all the things I liked about that. A outstanding cast, fabulous locations, excellent photography, lots of hilarious lines AND a great (if hugely improbable) story. A very nicely judged balance between outrageous comedy and an involving whodunit, plus a nice combination of people we care about and cartoonishly malevolent baddies. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively clearly enjoyed reprising their roles and Allison Janney is magnificent, as ever.

...and it isn't the same reason as why we watch violent thrillers or historical dramas. It's important to me that the characters are likeable, the locations are picturesque and the story is simple. We all know the formula - attractive, intelligent woman is at something of a crossroads in her life and has recently ended a relationship. She meets by accident a man of around her age who also has something missing from his life and they both take the first 75 minutes of the film to realise that the other person might be just what's needed. A rocky ten minutes or so gets the difficulty out of the way and everything's fine by the 90-minute mark. This is the case here. The two leads do a good job of being nervous of showing their feelings, they're very charming and the rest of the cast are just right. I did worry that the magic moment had been left a little late here but the ending suited the personalities of Maddie and James. I don't need anyone to change the plots of these films, I like them to be filmed in Canada and there should always be some snow and a house in which I would like to live!