Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor is a crime thriller that features plenty of twists and reveals as one woman investigates the disappearance of another. Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively star in A Simple Favor’s cast as single mom Stephanie Smothers and fellow mother Emily Nelson, respectively. The two become friends when their sons spend time together outside of school. However, when Emily mysteriously vanishes, Stephanie takes the investigation of her friend’s disappearance into her own hands. Along the way, the secrets both women have kept hidden for years are revealed.

Adapted from the book of the same name by Darcey Bell, A Simple Favor is a crime thriller in the vein of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train – both of which were adapted to film to varying success. Trailers for A Simple Favor teased another such twisty mystery, but with comedy director Paul Feig behind the camera, viewers knew to expect plenty of humor, too. However, none of his movies have featured the twists and reveals showcased in A Simple Favor.

Emily’s Twin Sister Returns

Faith Disappeared After She & Emily Burned Down Their Family Home

Emily disappears after asking Stephanie to pick up her son from school while her husband Sean (Henry Golding) is in London visiting his mother. After days of searching, Emily’s body is seemingly found in a lake at a camp in Michigan. However, it’s later revealed that the body doesn’t belong to Emily, but Emily’s twin, Faith. Emily and her sister grew up at their parents’ home but set fire to it when they were teenagers, killing their father and running away to avoid consequences.

Their crime is why Emily doesn’t like to have her picture taken, as she’s perpetually on the run from her childhood. The twins were split up to avoid detection, and Faith didn’t show up when they were meant to reunite and start a new life together. Instead, Emily starts her own life, but Emily remains angry at her twin for leaving her.

Emily Kills Faith To Keep Their Childhood Crime From Being Exposed

She Makes The Body Look Like Hers Sean Can Claim The Life Insurance

Emily’s disappearance is the result of her twin showing up out of the blue and asking Emily to meet at the camp they both attended as children – the one in Michigan. Emily’s twin is a poor woman addicted to drugs who’s preparing to turn herself in for the fire, taking Emily down with her. She pleads for money, and Emily seemingly agrees, but it’s a ploy because Emily can’t let her twin destroy her new life – the life she built when her twin left her alone to fend for herself.

The two go for a swim in the lake for old time’s sake, but Emily drowns her sister. Then, Emily makes the body look like hers (the two have matching tattoos they got after running away) and fakes her own death so that Sean can get the payout on the life insurance policy. Sean, meanwhile, has no idea about Emily’s plan until she shows up later and tells him.

Stephanie Has An Affair With Her Half-Brother

Her Husband Kills Himself & Chris By Driving Off A Cliff

At the heart of it, A Simple Favor is about infidelity. Stephanie is a single mother who was widowed when her husband and half-brother died in a tragic car accident, and she’s only able to support herself through her husband’s life insurance (Stephanie telling Emily about the life insurance is what inspires Emily’s plot to help her own family get out of debt by faking her death). However, as Stephanie slowly reveals to Emily throughout the movie, she slept with her half-brother Chris when they were younger, and it’s implied that they continued sleeping together.

Later, Stephanie reveals that her husband was always suspicious of her relationship with Chris and accused their son Miles of actually being Chris’s biological child. In a drunken rage, Stephanie’s husband drives off the road with Chris in the pᴀssenger seat of his car, purposefully killing them both. When Emily asks Stephanie who she misses most, Stephanie is unable to choose, implying she loves Chris just as much if not more than her husband.

Stephanie Attempts To Expose Emily

She Secretly Streamed The Whole Thing On Her Vlog

Stephanie, Emily, and Sean get together – with Stephanie aiming to get Emily to admit to what she’s done, while Emily wants to kill Stephanie for everything she’s uncovered, as well as for sleeping with Sean when they thought Emily was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. However, Emily killed the bugs the police placed in the home to record her confession. But in one final twist, Stephanie reveals she has a small camera on her shirt that streamed the entire interaction live to her vlog. As a result, the police have the confession, and Emily goes to jail.

What A Simple Favor’s Ending Really Means

It’s A Commentary On Society’s Expectations Of Women

At its core, A Simple Favor’s ending reveals not only the truth behind Emily’s disappearance but also the extent of her manipulation and planning. Yet, it’s not just about the plot twists or uncovering the mystery; it’s about the characters’ transformations and what these reveal about society’s expectations of women. The film cleverly uses its thriller genre to critique traditional gender roles and the idealization of the “perfect” life, whether it be through the lens of motherhood, marriage, or career. The ending underscores the idea that the facades people create can often hide much darker truths.

How The A Simple Favor Ending Was Received

The Movie Received Praise But Not Everyone Loved The Ending

The reactions to A Simple Favor were all over the place. For critics, the film received a “Certified Fresh” rating of 84% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the fans rated it at 73%, and it seemed that no one could agree on the quality of the movie or its ending. One audience member wrote, “First half was entertaining and drew me in, second half lost all sophistication. By the end, I was sorely disappointed.” However, another wrote, “Great cast and story that you keep thinking will be predicatable … but never is and keeps you guessing!“

As for the critics, Cath Clarke of The Guardian wrote that she recognizes that the writers had their pulse on the struggles between working mothers and stay-at-home moms. This was, to her, more important than the murder mystery. With that said, she also recognizes the humor and loved the ending, writing, “It does all come good in the end with a hysterical action scene involving an electric car – showcasing Feig at his sublime silliest best.” Yohana Desta of Vanity Fair had even more comparisons for the twists in the movie’s end:

“The second half takes that Gone Girl splash and mixes it with the true-crime satire of Serial Mom, John Waters’s glossy 1994 romp about a picture-perfect housewife with a taste for murder. Which is to say, it loses its mind and takes the audience on a crazy, flashy journey, amping up each plot twist with a bigger, wilder plot twist.”

However, the A Simple Favor ending wasn’t the best part of the movie for some fans. In a Reddit thread, one Redditor wrote, “The movie did a great job of transitioning from a Paul Feig comedy with a sinister edge to a compelling thriller, but then it dropped most of the plot threads, rushed the others and became a parody of itself.“