A Simple Favor (2018)

A single mother (Anna Kendrick) runs a video blog while raising her son (Joshua Satine). At her son's school, she meets another mother (Blake Lively), who has a high powered job and the women become best friends although they are very different. But when her friend goes missing, she takes it upon herself to discover what happened but when the friend's dead body is found drowned in a lake, that would seem to be the end of it. But it isn't ..... and a darker scenario shows that her deceased friend wasn't exactly who she thought she was. Based on the novel by Darcey Bell and directed by Paul Feig (BRIDESMAIDS). I love a good mystery movie and this black comedy/mystery is a humdinger. Alas, like many such films it can't sustain itself until the end and the movie's last half hour is pretty ludicrous. But up till then I was glued to the screen. Both Kendrick and Lively are very good, giving contrasting performances, one sugar (Kendrick) and one spice (Lively). There are enough twists and turns to keep movie mystery lovers happy. With Henry Golding, Jean Smart, Linda Cardellini and Rupert Friend.