“A Simple Favor”, a movie based on Darcey Bell’s book is a mystery film directed by Paul Feig. starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding, the movie takes place in the 21st century and displays a representation of a modern American Family This is Feig’s first film to be shot in Univisium, a type of film format. The screenplay was written by Jessica Sharzer and stuck closely to the plot of the book.

The movie centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a blogger who is trying to solve the mystery of her friend, Emily’s (Blake Lively), sudden disappearance. Stephanie pairs with Emily’s husband Sean (Henry Golding) to find Emily. Stephanie and Sean have to continue to raise their elementary level boys while uncovering crazy secrets and shocking twists about Emily’s life.

After meeting Emily for a play date with their boys, Stephanie and Emily become best friends. They share secrets and give each other advice. A few days later Emily asks Stephaine for a simple favor, to pick her son up from school that day. But after hours and then days of not hearing from Emily, Stephanie and Sean file a missing persons report.

While looking for Emily, Stephanie finds out many of Emily’s secrets such as her having a twin sister, faking her own death, killing her father, drowning her sister and running away from home. The movie is a crazy whirlwind of stories that all come together in the end, and one has to see it to fully understand.

The movie opened in theaters Sept. 14, 2018, and has a run time of 166 minutes. The movie is worth the watch and constantly develops new stories and mysteries. You might think you have the whole mystery solved,  until the characters uncover more unknown information, over and over and over again.