Another Simple Favor

“Another Simple Favor” might not be Emily’s perfection, chilled-glass martini, but that’s fine.

It’s another very twist-heavy film that works better when its characters are just allowed to be marvelous instead of mysterious.

If your favorite bits of A Simple Favor was Lively embracing her inner bad girl and delivering face and looks? You'll cherish this divinely twisted thriller.

Not every attempt to expand on the concept is successful, but as a piece of escapist entertainment it’s more clever than most.

Another Simple Favor drops threads and drags on, but survives on its self-assured baseline pleasures: the gorgeous yet nonsensical setting of Capri, the lush wonders of Renée Ehrlich Kalfus’s costume design and the two leads’ perfectly calibrated banter.

Though the simplest pleasures remain, the heat powering the concept has cooled to the extent that, despite the increased body count, the sequel feels as perfunctory as its title. It’s just Another one.

To enjoy this pic you have to roll with its absurdities.

Although the sequel spices things up by having a more exotic setting and the scene-stealing duo of Elizabeth Perkins and Allison Janney joining the cast, Another Simple Favor does get bogged down by getting too twist-y as the mystery unfolds.

A solid sequel... that doesn’t have the same magic or energy as the original, but there is enough here to recommend it to those who miss spending time with Stephanie and Emily and are up to going on an Italian adventure with them.

The air is rich with secrets and splendor. The glamorous guests drip with humorous dread, contempt and sarcasm, trading barbs with wry wit and poisonous edge. A glossy noir, "Another Simple Favor" is wildly twisty and fabulously fun.