Dear reader, I have to preface this review by warning the uninitiated that Another Simple Favor is a sequel to A Simple Favor, and I would recommend that, before you sit to watch this film, you watch the latter purely because it will not just enhance your viewing experience but will also put you in the shoes of the protagonist in your own sleuthing of the plot.
In this Nancy Drew meets true crime genre of storytelling, which picks up roughly three years after the first part ended, our cookie-baking, full-time mom, Stephanie, is now running a widely popular detective channel called ‘A Pinch of Murder.’ Here, she has found success cracking a bunch of cases, punishing serial offenders by becoming an informant, and also procuring a book deal that chronicles the case that made her stumble upon this unlikely career path—the case involving her ambitious, elusive, and high-ranking best friend Emily, who disappeared a la Gone Girl style after asking Stephanie to take care of her son, Nicky. This disappearance not only set Stephanie off on a wild goose chase, but it also led to her having an affair with Emily’s husband, Sean, all while discovering a trail of deceit and deception about Emily’s past. This included her real name (Hope), her delusional mother and gun-toting father, her sisters who were born as triplets (Hope, her sister Faith, whom she drowns in order to protect her identity, and the third, who was a stillborn), and cracking down on Emily’s mega-scheme of taking her four million dollars in life insurance and escaping with her son while pinning her death on her husband. Now that you are all caught up with Stephanie’s accomplishments, we are introduced to her current dilemma, which is the fact that she is under house arrest in Italy.
Spoilers Ahead
What is Stephanie doing in Italy?
In a flashback, where she is telling her vlog viewers what happened, we see that, after sending her kid to camp, Stephanie is busy promoting her book at a public reading. Here, she is confronted by her agent, who is complaining that her book sales aren’t picking up because Emily’s mystery has already gone viral because of her live vlogs, and the readers are aware of how the events unfurled, so the intrigue of a true-crime mystery is lost. However, this complaint doesn’t last too long, since Emily, who up until now was in prison, decides to surprise Stephanie at the reading by presenting her with a new opportunity. She wants Stephanie to be her maid of honor at her wedding to a millionaire in Italy; that sounds like a fairytale nightmare waiting to happen. Initially reluctant because of Emily’s vengeful antics and their shared past, Stephanie eventually is arm-twisted into agreeing when she is threatened by a lawsuit and the looming opportunity of a sequel to her book if she survives long enough to tell the story. This lands her on a private jet filled with oddballs to the island of Capri, where Emily’s fiancé is a reigning mafia heir.
How did Emily get out of prison?Â
While on the plane, Stephanie realizes that Emily’s fiancé is a millionaire with a bunch of family connections and a knack for spending luxuriously. She is also suspicious of his lineage when she is not allowed to photograph or vlog on the flight due to security concerns. Upon speaking with Emily in a fun bit of repartee that is reminiscent of the prequel, she is told that the fiancé is called Dante Versano. Emily met him in Rome when she worked there at a dive bar and called herself ‘Olivia.’ Between teaching her Italian and succumbing to her art of seduction, they fell in love. However, once she moved, they lost touch with one another. Many years later, he saw her on the news because of Stephanie’s vlog going viral, and that’s how they reunited. Dante not only pays top dollar to get Emily out of prison but also arm-twists her ex-husband to make sure that he and Nicky attend the wedding, and that’s where things start getting complicated.
What happens to Sean at the wedding party?
A drone flying overhead introduces us to a now-alcoholic Sean, who looks like he never recovered from the betrayal of the prequel, and a flaming red-haired Nicky, who is acting out as a rebellious teenager from growing up torn between reading letters written from jail by his convict mother and trying to get attention from his depressed father. Stephanie is unaware of the presence of these unlikely invitees but comes face-to-face with this blast from her past when she arrives in Capri. In spite of meeting in this uncomfortable setting, the two of them are civil to one another and catch up on life after the events that led to Emily’s imprisonment. Sean, while getting plastered, warns Stephanie about Emily’s poisonous tendencies and tells her that she should not let her guard down since she ruined her life and, in all probability, Emily still holds a grudge against her. As the festivities commence, tempers start flying high between Sean and Dante as their egos tussle in jealousy and sheer bitterness. However, the women aren’t left behind since Dante’s mother decides to spite Emily by inviting her delusional mother and conniving aunt to the wedding as a gift from hell. This leads to cacophony at the wedding party, and, amongst other things, Stephanie also realizes that she is at a mafia wedding where all the other invitees are a part of the mob. After Sean tells Emily that he is going to file for full custody of Nicky and make sure she doesn’t ruin his life, Dante asks Sean to leave the event. This leads to him going to his room while the rest of the wedding party is still at the event. While in the shower, he seems to have a brain aneurysm, and blood starts pouring out of his face as he comes crashing through the glass shower. Dead.
How does Stephanie discover Sean’s body?
Emily invites Stephanie for a solo bachelorette party to commemorate her last night before the wedding. This scene is revelatory for the audience, who may not have watched the first part, and a lot of their discussion with cold, dry martinis in hand is focused on a recap of their turbulent relationship. The banter is biting yet funny, and both the characters are well-developed in their motives. Emily negating Stephanie’s suspicion that she is going to poison her, followed by Stephanie lying face-down in water, is one of the many smart montage edits that make for snappy storytelling. Upon returning from this bachelorette party, Stephanie spots Nicky in the corridor trying to get inside Sean’s room; however, no one’s responding from inside. This leads her to investigate further, touching the wet carpet under the door after sending Nicky off. As the housekeeper opens the door, it is revealed that Sean is dead. But we already knew that; however, what is surprising is that the Italian police as well as the family behave nonchalantly and justify it by calling it an accident. Stephanie is convinced it’s a murder, as she knows that Emily had a lot to gain from Sean’s death, especially Nicky’s custody.
What does Stephanie find out from the private investigator?
Fresh after the death, on a trip roaming the streets of Capri, Stephanie comes across a woman she had spotted at her book reading. Her sleuthing sense peaks as she approaches the woman and learns that she is an FBI agent who is following one of the other invitees at the wedding. The invitee happens to be Emily’s aunty Linda, who has a criminal history hiding in the shadows. The private detective also shows Stephanie a picture of Linda on the day of her reading where she is standing with a woman who has the same tattoo as Emily, which makes her more suspicious since Emily pretended that she met Linda for the first time at the wedding party. This meeting propels us into another mystery as the case becomes more convoluted than the predictable track we were on.
What does Stephanie witness at the wedding reception, and who dies?
The wedding day with Emily wearing a blood-bordered white gown is everything that a quintessential Capri wedding looks like on Instagram. Against the ocean as the wind blows, Emily and Dante seal it with a kiss and a burnt prenup as a declaration of Dante’s love. Dante also calls a truce with the mafioso who were at loggerheads with his family, and people raise their glasses, toasting to peace. However, peace has no place in a murder mystery, so as the fireworks of celebration go off, Dante is shot dead by an invisible hitman. The sole witness to this crime is Stephanie, which lands her in the coveted position of prime suspect in the murder, as Dante’s family, Emily, and the rest of the mob look to her for answers.
How does Emily intend to double down on Stephanie?
Since Stephanie is being investigated regarding Dante’s murder, she is under house arrest in Capri; this keeps her isolated from anyone who could help to clear herself of these false charges. Emily comes to visit her in these circumstances and reveals that she has told the police that Stephanie was also responsible for Sean’s murder, since on the night of his death she was late to the bachelorette party. She threatens Stephanie, saying that she should confess to the cops if she wants to see her son again, because otherwise she will never be able to go back. While this conversation lingers, Stephanie realizes from the way she is behaving and speaking that this isn’t Emily; instead, it is Charity, the triplet who was stillborn. She just doesn’t know how to prove this as yet. She manages to sneak out of the house arrest with the help of a housekeeper, meets Emily’s mother, who confirms her suspicions about Charity, and is about to escape to a safe house when Charity frames her for the murder of the FBI agent, and she is kidnapped by the mob.
Why does Emily save Stephanie from the mob?
Stephanie is administered truth serum by Dante’s mother in order to extract a confession of her crime; however, this fails, as Stephanie rambles on about Charity instead. Dante’s mother gives up and asks her hitmen to kill Stephanie when Emily comes in as a knight in shining armor and saves her, only to confirm her doubts and tell her the entire truth. Her aunt Linda had stolen Charity at childbirth and had used her to commit crimes and be an accomplice in her nefarious ways. This, along with being homeschooled and isolated from society and relationships, had dented Charity’s perception of reality. She was a girl stuck in a woman’s body and was brainwashed by Linda into believing that her two sisters didn’t want her; hence, she was given to her. Charity, however, loved her sisters and wanted to be with them, and Linda used this vulnerability to manipulate her into killing Sean and then Dante so she could finish Emily and replace Charity in her place while inheriting the money that Dante had left behind for her. This was the grand plan that Emily had understood when Charity showed up at her door and drugged her into a comatose state so she could replace her at the wedding, but only after telling her how she had been craving to be one with her sister, who she believes is her soulmate.
How does Linda lure Emily and Stephanie to the cliff?
In the aftermath of the unraveling of their collective suspicions, Emily sees that Stephanie is live on her channel. However, instead it’s Charity, with scissors in her hands, who has Nicky in her custody, all while dropping hints about her location and asking them to meet her there. Emily and Stephanie rush on their moped to the location, which is a cliff made famous by a violent Roman emperor who would push people off it for his entertainment. As they arrive at the aforementioned location, Linda, Charity, and Nicky are standing like props waiting for the confrontation to commence. This is maybe one of the weakest points in the film since everything we were meant to know by now has already unraveled to a point of predictability. Linda tells them her plan and is about to kill Stephanie (I guess because she knows too much) when Emily starts protesting as a diversion tactic, and it works because Stephanie catches on and calls Linda out for also wanting to kill Emily since that’s the only way Charity will be able to take her place. This triggers Charity, who starts protesting and saying that she won’t let anything happen to Emily since she is doing this so that they can be together. Linda gets caught in her own web of deception. Emily uses this moment to push Linda off the cliff and end the saga of familial trauma that has marred their lives. As far as Charity goes, she proposes that she pay for her sins by truly replacing Emily and serving time for the various murders she committed in her name.
What happens to Emily and Stephanie?
In Another Simple Favor’s ending, Stephanie comes back alive and with a true-crime bestseller that none of her fans have heard of or watched due to phones being prohibited. She settles back into her usual suburban mom detective life and also brings Nicky along to stay with her. Emily asks her to raise him while she is living underground so as to not get identified, as she is still on the run. Wearing pearls, holding a champagne flute, and sparkling against marble structures, Emily still looks like she is in Italy, celebrating her freedom; just then, the figure of Dante’s mob mom approaches her with a red envelope in hand to ask for ‘a simple favor,’ and we are already prepared that this time it’s not going to be so simple after all. I just wonder, where is this adventure going to take us in part 3?
