Gal Pal Movie With Some Twists

You remember “Bridesmaids,” the raunchy, female-friendship comedy directed by Paul Feig that made Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig stars. Now Feig is back with a story of two women from different social and economic lives suddenly meeting and bonding before the movie spirals out of control in a hasty, over-the-top ending.

Anna Kendrick plays Stephanie, a widow raising her still young son somewhere in Connecticut. She regularly hosts self-produced video internet programs, vlogs, from her cheerful kitchen over decorated with children’s drawings. She pitches recipes and a grating positivity, but actually she is a relentless example of aspirational motherhood. Even the teachers at her son’s school ridicule her, behind her back of course.

Her formerly low viewership increases at a quickening rate after she announces her friend, Emily (Blake Lively), has disappeared. In a lengthy flashback — almost a little film of its own — Stephanie tells us how Emily emerged at their sons’ mutual school one rainy day and shined her goddess-like light on Stephanie. She falls hard for this vision of wealth, sophistication and privilege. At their sons’ prodding they arrange a play date, and Stephanie is swept into Emily’s sleek world: the modernist house, the portrait of a naked Emily above the fireplace, the cold, dry martinis. Emily seems to have it all: a sports car, a fancy city job in fashion, an appealing husband, Sean (Henry Golding) — a writer who has managed to produce only one successful book — and a life Stephanie craves.   

 Feig sets all this up with barely suppressed glee. His palette is bright, his strokes bold, creating a recognizable world with the intention of a cartoon. The divide between the two women begins to close slowly. Then Emily goes missing, and the story veers into “Gone Girl” territory containing kinks, twists, a shady past. But the lengthy ending simply does not deliver on the story’s potential, even with a  brief, energized cameo by Jean Smart.

In the end the movie belongs to the two fine actresses who give it spark: Lively looks and plays her flashy character with sensitivity to the smiles that become sneers, the suggestions that become unwelcome, even dangerous actions. Kendrick is so good you may feel different actresses are playing the many aspects of Stephanie’s character. 

“A Simple Favor” is playing widely.