A Simple Favor

**A Simple Favor** is a 2018 film starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding and Andrew Rannells, directed by Paul Feig, written by Jessica Sharzer and produced by Feig and Jessie Henderson.

The film was a financial success as it generated a profit of $8 million.

## Plot

Widowed single mother Stephanie Smothers runs a vlog featuring crafts and recipes for parents. She becomes friends with Emily Nelson, a PR director for a fashion company, and they exchange confessions over martinis. Stephanie shares that as a teenager, she had sex with her half-brother Chris. Emily is frustrated by the lack of success of her husband, English professor Sean Townsend, and their poor financial situation.

Stephanie babysits Emily's son while Sean is in London. After two days of Emily not returning calls, Stephanie learns from Emily's boss, Dennis Nylon, that Emily is in Miami. Stephanie calls Sean, who contacts the police. Trying to solve her disappearance, Stephanie makes missing person flyers using a photo of Emily that she found hidden on her desk.

Detective Summerville reports that Emily lied about flying to Miami, and her drowned body is discovered in the lake at a summer camp. Stephanie and Sean share their grief and begin a sexual relationship. Summerville reveals to Stephanie that Emily had severe liver damage, a large amount of heroin in her system, and that Sean had recently taken out $4 million life insurance on Emily.

Stephanie receives an insulting message apparently from Emily about her tryst with her half-brother. Stephanie recalls that her late husband suspected her infidelity and may have intentionally caused the car crash that killed both him and Chris. Investigating Emily's past, Stephanie meets Diana Hyland, who painted a portrait of Emily. Diana says the painting is actually of her muse Claudia, whom she describes as a con artist who disappeared. Diana's information leads Stephanie to a yearbook showing Emily as Hope McLanden, with an identical twin named Faith McLanden. Their mother, Margaret, explains that at 16, the twins had set fire to the house, killing their father. Meanwhile, Emily surprises Sean and tells him she plans to collect the insurance money and leave the country.

Stephanie contrives to meet with Emily, who explains she and her sister started the fire to kill their abusive father. The sisters fled separately with a plan to reunite later, but Faith didn't turn up. Emily built a career and family when, 14 years later, Faith reappeared. Now an alcoholic and heroin addict, she threatened to tell about the murder unless paid a million dollars. Emily drowned Faith in the lake, but tells Stephanie she committed suicide and that Sean planned the insurance scam.

Emily and Stephanie are both angered by Sean's relationship with the other and frame Sean for abusing Emily. Sean is arrested and released on bail. Stephanie has a change of heart and stages an argument with Sean in front of Emily to incriminate her while police-planted microphones are recording. She fakes shooting Sean. Emily, having predicted their ruse and disabled the microphones, confesses her crimes while holding the pair at gunpoint, saying she will stage their murder-suicide. Shooting Sean in the shoulder, she turns the gun on Stephanie, who reveals a hidden camera is live-streaming the entire event on her vlog. Emily is arrested.

Closing text says Emily was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Sean's second novel was a bestseller and he became a successful professor at Berkeley. Stephanie is dating another man. Her vlog has a million followers and is being developed as a TV show, and she is a part-time private detective. In a post-credits scene, Emily is seen winning a basketball game in prison.