A Simple Favor (2018) * *

Directed by:  Paul Feig

Starring:  Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding, Jean Smart, Andrew Rannells, Linda Cardellini

I enjoyed the buildup more than the payoff in A Simple Favor.    Until the final thirty minutes, when the mystery was solved in clunky fashion, A Simple Favor was an effective, dark thriller with comic undertones.    But, the resolution wasn't worthy of the setup, and we walk away disappointed at a movie which could've been a gem.    Where did it step wrong?    And why? 

There is a mystery indeed.   I will tread lightly on the details.  We first meet Stephanie (Kendrick), a widow and mom who runs a video blog telling moms how to cook, bake, and make cute trinkets.    Her son goes to the same private school as the son of Emily (Lively), who emerges from a sports car in the rain to pick up her child looking all sleek, stylish, and uber chic.   Stephanie is enthralled by Emily, and is further so when they become friends.    Emily's home is an interior designer's wet dream.   It looks more like a museum than a home, and Emily guzzles martinis as if Prohibition were returning soon.

Emily is complicated, which is likely what draws the simpler and more awkward Stephanie to her.   She speaks frankly (sometimes too much), frets about her financial status, has a high-paying, yet high-stress job, and laments her husband no longer being a famous writer, but instead is now an anonymous college professor.    Something about Emily doesn't fit in the world of play dates and birthday parties.   One day, Emily asks Stephanie to pick up her son from school and disappears without a trace.

There are plenty of red flags with Emily, including her insistence Stephanie delete the picture she just took of her. and Emily's husband Sean's (Golding-from Crazy Rich Asians) realization that he didn't know her as much as he thought.    I couldn't help but think of the recent, and far superior Searching's similar theme.    I won't reveal much more of the plot, since it requires we discover what happened and soon we find we can't endure another plot twist or surprise thrown in to jerk us around.    As strange as this may sound, I liked A Simple Favor more before the movie began to unravel itself layer by layer and I was underwhelmed.     I enjoyed the performances and the first 80 minutes, but then we realize we would've rather the magician not shown us how the trick was performed.    We would've just preferred to be fooled.