Just a little favor
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Just a little favor |
| Original title | A simple favor |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 2018 |
| length | 117 minutes |
| Age rating |
FSK 12 JMK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Paul Feig |
| script | Jessica Sharzer |
| production | Paul Feig, Jessie Henderson |
| music | Theodore Shapiro |
| camera | John Schwartzman |
| cut | Brent White |
| occupation | |
| |
Only a small favor (AKA: A Simple Favor ) is an American movie from the year 2018 by Paul Feig with Anna Kendrick , Blake Lively and Henry Golding in the lead roles. The screenplay by Jessica Sharzer is based on the novel Just a Little Favor - A Simple Favor (2017) by Darcey Bell. In the USA, the film was released on September 14, 2018, and the German theatrical release took place on November 8, 2018.
action
Stephanie Smothers is a widowed, single parent vlogger who publishes recipe videos and lives on her late husband's life insurance . Because of her purely housewife role, Stephanie is mocked by the other mothers at her son Miles' school. Stephanie and the extravagant head of fashion PR Emily get to know each other through their children. Emily drinks and swears a lot, lives excessively in a luxurious house and takes little interest in the upbringing of her son Nicky. Although they have little in common apart from their respective loneliness, the women make friends with each other. Over a drink they share their secrets and Stephanie admits that years ago she slept with her half-brother Chris. When Stephanie takes a snapshot of Emily, Stephanie threatens legal consequences and demands immediate deletion.
One day, Emily asks for the title-giving little favor and asks Stephanie to pick up her son Nicky from school and take him home with her because she doesn't have the time. The always helpful Stephanie does her this favor and waits in vain for Emily to pick up her son in the evening, but she has disappeared. Her husband Sean, a writer with a one-off success story, doesn't know anything about her whereabouts either. He also mentions that there are no pictures of Emily. The police didn't take the disappearance very seriously at first, which is why Stephanie decided to do her own research, also because it would help her find something to do in her otherwise uneventful life. Emily's employer, Dennis Nylon, doesn't care too much about her disappearance, but while rummaging through her office, Stephanie finds a photo and starts putting up search notes with the picture on it.
Sean and Stephanie grow closer during the following days, also because she cares a lot for both children. On her blog posts, she keeps telling about the search for Emily and, following a tip from a viewer, a body is found in a lake in Michigan, which Sean identifies as his wife. Stephanie and Sean have their first night together. A conversation with the police soon afterwards reveals that Sean had taken out high life insurance on her shortly before Emily's disappearance. Nevertheless, the two begin to live together.
Nicky claims to have seen his dead mother by the school fence and to say hi to Stephanie for her. There's a blue bracelet she gave Emily on his bedside table, and the house smells of her perfume. Sean can dispel Stephanie's doubts and asks her to move in with him. As she settles in, she throws out all of Emily's clothes, but they suddenly hang in the dressing room again. The next day Nicky gives her an envelope with a picture of Stephanie's family in it, on which she and her half-brother are circled, with the caption "Brother fucker" - which only Emily can know about.
Looking back, it becomes clear that Stephanie's husband Davis had doubts about the paternity of Miles and that he and Chris were killed in a possibly deliberate car accident. Emily told Stephanie about her feelings of guilt and loneliness. The search for further clues to Emily leads her to Diana Hyland, a painter. Emily knew her as Claudia, her muse, with whom she lived a self-destructive phase of her painting. Diana gives Stephanie a tip that leads her to a yearbook that reveals that Emily is really Hope McLanden and has a twin sister named Faith. Stephanie seeks out her mother, Margaret McLanden, and learns that the twins set fire to a wing of the spacious house as children and then disappeared.
On another vlog, Stephanie tells about her search and it becomes clear that Emily is watching her. She surprises Sean in a cafe and tells him about her plan to gain financial independence with the help of the life insurance payment. She gives him the choice of choosing between her and Stephanie. However, Stephanie has informed the insurance company that Emily has a twin sister and that the body in the lake could be the sister as well - which would nullify the claim. She meets Emily in the cemetery, where they press each other with their secrets. Emily tells about the youth they shared with Faith and how they burned their domineering father. After their split, they didn't hear from each other for years until Faith finally found Hope / Emily. They meet and Faith turns out to be a drug addict wreck trying to blackmail her sister for a million dollars. However, Emily drowns her in the lake - Stephanie tells Emily that her sister has committed suicide.
Emily reappears in public, pretending that Sean killed her sister and attacked her. She meets Sean in the shared house, where Stephanie shows up and threatens them both with a gun. Stephanie tries to get Emily to confess her sister's murder, but she anticipates this and destroys the hidden microphones. Emily shoots Sean and wants to shoot Stephanie, but she broadcast the whole scene on video. Emily is arrested after being hit by a car. One credit scene shows her in jail, where she seems to be doing just fine. The fall makes Stephanie's vlog very successful.
synchronization
The German dubbing was done by the Berlin based Cinephon Filmproduktions GmbH . The dialogue book was written by Pierre Peters-Arnolds , who also directed the dialogue.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Stephanie Smothers | Anna Kendrick | Anne Helm |
| Emily Nelson | Blake Lively | Kaya Marie Möller |
| Sean Townsend | Henry Golding | Fabian Oscar Vienna |
| Darren | Andrew Rannells | |
| Diana Hyland | Linda Cardellini | Flavia Vinzens |
| Dennis nylon | Rupert Friend | Matthias Deutelmoser |
| Margaret McLanden | Jean Smart | |
| Nicky | Ian Ho | Oskar Ehrhorn |
| Davis | Eric Johnson | |
| Mrs. Kerry | Glenda Braganza | Nadine Heidenreich |
| Chris | Dustin Milligan | |
| Maryanne Chelkowsky | Sarah Baker | Almut Zydra |
| Detective Summerville | Bashir Salahuddin | Christoph Banks |
| Stacy | Kelly McCormack | Patrizia Carlucci |
| Valerie | Gia Sandhu | Jelena Baack |
production
Filming began on August 14, 2017 in Toronto , Canada . The film was produced by Lionsgate , Feigco Entertainment and Bron Studios. Renee Ehrlich Kalfus was responsible for the costume design, and Jefferson Sage for the production design. The cost of production was around $ 20 million.
reception
Laura-Sophie Stein says in the TV Movie program guide that the film has many twists and turns, so that everything is only clear at the end. Director Paul Feig criticizes the image of mothers in today's society by comparing two different ones: the perfect suburban mom and the tough career woman. Because of their secrets, the facade is crumbling; Mothers are not perfect. Paul Feig is particularly good at combining clichés with their opposite. Despite exciting and suspenseful scenes, one does not sit in the cinema seat with a shudder all the time. "The psychological thriller is loosened up by black humor and is therefore also an absolute recommendation for thriller newbies."
Patrick Dehnhardt says in the Gießener Allgemeine Zeitung that the crime comedy is nice to look at, especially thanks to the leading actress Anna Kendrick. However, the script has some weaknesses.
Web links
- Only a small favor in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Only a small pleasure in rotten tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Just a Little Favor . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 181501 / K).
- ↑ Age rating for Just a Little Favor . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Just a little favor - bitter, bad humor in a thriller format . Article dated October 30, 2018, accessed November 4, 2018.
- ↑ A Simple Favor (2018) - Release Info - IMDb . Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ↑ Just a small favor. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on November 4, 2018 .
- ↑ 'Crazy Rich Asians' star Henry Golding Joins Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick's 'A Simple Favor' . Article dated July 26, 2017, accessed November 4, 2018.
- ↑ A Simple Favor (2018) - IMDb . Retrieved November 4, 2018.
- ↑ Film review: "Just a little favor" - psychological thriller for beginners . Article dated November 4, 2018, accessed November 4, 2018.
- ↑ When your best friend disappears - »Just a small favor« . Article dated November 2, 2018, accessed November 4, 2018.