History Film / ASimpleFavor

** FashionDesigner Dennis ''Nylon''.

* AdaptationalHeroism: [[spoiler:In the novel, Sean was gaslighting Stephanie because he and Emily planned the whole thing together. In the film, he genuinely believes Emily is dead.]]

* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler:Emily]] seems to be willingly capable of... ''anything'', really, especially [[spoiler:if it serves her plans; it’s never quite clear if she’s in the totally amoral category, or ''just'' the casually manipulative]]. Emily is into men and has a husband but later kind of seduces Stephanie. [[spoiler: Emily is discovered to be a killer who faked her own death and had a twisted plan.]] It's also implied she's been involved with Dylan, a lesbian who also [[IntimateArtistry painted her nude]] many times in the past.

* IntimateArtistry: Dylan, a lesbian who Emily's implied to have been in a relationship with, painted her nude multiple times. She says Emily served as her muse, and has only painted knives since then.

* BaitAndSwitch: The caretaker of Emily's mom blocks Stephanie's path as she's trying to leave while menacingly wielding a shotgun... only to say [[ItMakesSenseInContext he wants to order a navy blue blazer in an extra large.]]

%%* FemmeFatale: Emily.

* FeetFirstIntroduction: Emily makes a deliberately emphatic first entrance, emerging from a Porsche in killer heels. There's a particular emphasis on her feet because her face is initially screened by an umbrella. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cVlSAD2mRU The movie trailer exploits the hell out of this moment]], which comes about as close to a ShesGotLegs scene as is possible when the character is wearing a pant suit. The trope is played with a little, though, in that it takes place in a rainstorm and the character is a mother picking her kid up from school; the audience is reminded that this is (for now) a comedy set in suburbia, albeit with some {{Fanservice}}.

* FeetFirstIntroduction: Emily makes a deliberately emphatic first entrance, emerging from a Porsche in [[NiceShoes killer heels]]. There's a particular emphasis on her feet because her face is initially screened by an umbrella. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cVlSAD2mRU The movie trailer exploits the hell out of this moment]], which comes about as close to a ShesGotLegs scene as is possible when the character is wearing a pant suit. The trope is played with a little, though, in that it takes place in a rainstorm and the character is a mother picking her kid up from school; the audience is reminded that this is (for now) a comedy set in suburbia, albeit with some {{Fanservice}}.

* TeacherStudentRomance: Implied between Beth and Sean.

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:Emily's "death". She murdered her identical twin sister, making her look like herself to disappear.]]

* TheAlcoholic: Emily, as evidenced by the several scenes in which she makes martinis.

* GenerationXerox: Stephanie’s half-brother looks just like their father, [[spoiler:which makes it even weirder when they have sex]].

* IncestSubtext: A very strange example where there is incestuous subtext to [[spoiler: actual, textual incest. Stephanie's "deep, dark secret" is that she [[BrotherSisterIncest had sex with her half-brother]] after she met him for the first time at her father's funeral (and may or may not have had an ongoing sexual relationship with him). Said brother is said to be the [[GenerationXerox spitting image of her father when he was younger]], and the only reason they got close in the first place was because Stephanie was vulnerable after losing "the only person that understood [her]" and felt like her half-brother "[saw] her" in the same way her father did.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler:Emily's "death".]]

* TheUnfairSex: [[spoiler:Subverted. Emily planned to frame Sean for the life insurance scam by painting him as an [[DomesticAbuse abusive husband]] who forced her into it. It almost worked until her EngineeredPublicConfession.]]

* WidowWoman: Stephanie's husband and brother died in a car crash a couple years before the film started.

* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler:Emily]] seems to be willingly capable of... ''anything'', really, especially [[spoiler:if it serves her plans; it’s never quite clear if she’s in the totally amoral category, or ''just'' the casually manipulative]]. Emily flirts is married to a man but later kind of seduces Stephanie. [[spoiler: Emily is discovered to be a killer who faked her own death and had a twisted plan.]]

Due to the many twists and turns in the film, many of the trope names are spoilers. Proceed with caution.

* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler:Emily]] seems to be willingly capable of... ''anything'', really, especially [[spoiler:if it serves her plans; it’s never quite clear if she’s in the totally amoral category, or ''just'' the casually manipulative]].

* EveryoneHasStandards: Darren doesn't like Stephanie much, but after [[spoiler:Emily "dies," he goes out of his way to be nice to Stephanie at the funeral, and clearly feels genuinely sorry that Stephanie lost her friend. And in the end, he saves Stephanie's life -- the two of them may not be close, but he's not about to let Emily ''kill'' her.]]

* {{Fanservice}}:
** Stephanie tries on a slinky black dress of Emily's that she gets stuck in due to a faulty zipper. We're then treated to the sight of Anna Kendrick's hiked-up breasts for the entire time she's being interviewed by the investigator. Then later she cuts the dress off with scissors, presumably so we got to see Anna Kendrick running around in her bra.
** Emily strips down to skinny dip with [[spoiler: her sister Faith in Squaw Lake]], though the camera pans away before she takes off her underwear. [[spoiler:We still briefly see Faith's naked backside while she runs through the forest, though.]]
** Emily comforting Stephanie and whispering to her in a soft, husky voice before kissing her on the lips (which Stephanie seems to reciprocate.) Straight men and LGBT women in the audience, [[GirlOnGirlIsHot you're welcome]].

* FemmeFatale: Emily.

** Stephanie gets two sex scenes, a scene of her running around in her bra and a tight dress displaying her hiked-up breasts.
** Emily and [[spoiler:her sister Faith]] go skinny-dipping in Squaw Lake. Slightly undercut by [[spoiler:Emily killing Faith]] in the same scene.
** Both Stephanie and Emily get in on the action in one scene with [[GirlOnGirlIsHot a brief make-out session]].

* PsychoLesbian: Emily flirts and kind of seduces Stephanie. [[spoiler: Emily is discovered to be a killer who faked her own death and had a twisted plan.]]

''A Simple Favor'' is a 2018 {{black comedy}} {{mystery}} {{thriller}} film directed by Creator/PaulFeig and [[TheFilmOfTheBook based on the 2017 novel of the same name]] by Darcey Bell.

* GenreRoulette: Contains elements of {{black comedy}}, {{mystery}}, and {{thriller}}.

* OneTrackMindedArtist: Emily was TheMuse to Diana for a while; Diana mentions she could only make art of Emily while they were together.

* ShoutOut: Stephanie rushes into Sean's office, saying "Are you trying to Diabolique me!?", referencing the French 1955 movie Film/{{LesDiaboliques}}. [[spoiler:It is an apt reference, since the events Stephanie is going through at the time mirror parts of that movie well. Since the characters of Stephanie and Emily are also similar to Christina and Nicole in Les Diabolique, this may even be an InspirationNod.]]

* TheMovieOfTheBook: Based on Darcey Bell's 2017 novel of the same name.

* PsychoLesbian: Emily flirts and kind of seduces Stephanie. [[spoiler: Emily is disvered to be a killer who faked her own dead and had a twisted plan.]]

** [[spoiler:The first time, she films a vlog about how she feels Emily "''isn't truly gone''," and how she feels close to her, "almost like a ''twin''." She then comments that she's "gotta have ''faith''." In other words -- "Emily, I know you're alive, I know you're watching this, I know you have a triplet named Faith, and I am ''onto you''." Emily is ''not'' pleased.]]

* EvilIsBigger: This trope comes naturally [[spoiler: when you cast the 5’2” and petite Creator/AnnaKendrick as your hero and the [[StatuesqueStunner 5’11”]] Creator/BlakeLively as the antagonist. The poster above even highlights this.]]

* OneHeadTaller: Emily, played by the 5'10" Blake Lively, absolutely towers over Stephanie, played by the 5'2" Anna Kendrick. It serves to highlight the class difference between the two, the fact that Emily is usually wearing high heels only making it more pronounced.

** Emily strips down to skinny dip with [[spoiler: her sister Faith]], though the camera pans away before she takes off her underwear. We still see Faith's naked backside while she runs through the forest, though.

* {{Foil}}: Stephanie and Emily. Though they both love their kids, Stephanie is a girl who grew up with a relatively normal childhood and adolescence [[spoiler: (if you discount the "screwing your half-brother" part)]], and Emily grew up with AbusiveParents in a strict religious household, not to mention her [[spoiler: burning down a part of her house with her sister, effectively killing their abusive father. She couldn't be with her beloved sister, as they would've been spotted by the police. And even when she went to the place where she and Hope agreed to meet, her sister left her.]] Stephanie is an [[MyBelovedSmother overprotective mother]] who is actively involved in her son's school and a chirpy mainstay of the PTA, while Emily is said to never show up, is implied to get drunk even in front of her son, and gives a hilarious response to when Stephanie asks if Nicky has any dietary allergies.

* NotHelpingYourCase: To browbeat Emily's boss into letting her go without calling the cops, Stephanie threatens to tell her viewers that he, among other things, uses Indonesian child laborers. His response?

** It could be an act, but Emily does seem genuinely sympathetic when Stephanie reveals [[spoiler:she blames herself for the death of her husband and brother. It'd make sense, considering Emily herself killed her father.]]

* AbusiveParents: The triplets' parents. Their mother was strict and emotionally abusive, and their father beat them. Unsurprisingly, this led to [[spoiler:one sister developing a drug problem and the other becoming a pathological liar and manipulator.]]

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: The end of the movie sees [[spoiler:Emily getting a 20-year prison sentence and Stephanie starting a detective business.]] The book is much different; [[spoiler:Emily frames both Sean and Stephanie for murder and flees to Europe with her son, becoming a KarmaHoudini in the process.]]
* AdaptationalIntelligence: Stephanie is ''significantly'' smarter in the movie than the novel, which may be partly why the ending is radically different.
* AdaptationalNameChange: Faith is Evelyn in the novel, and there is no Charity.
* AdaptationalHeroism: Sean, who in the novel [[spoiler:was gaslighting Stephanie because he and Emily planned the whole thing together. Here he genuinely believes Emily is dead.]]
* AdaptationalVillainy: Faith is a much more antagonistic character in the film than the novel, [[spoiler: where she never threatens to blackmail her sister and instead eventually decides to die because her sister needs to get out of debt and she doesn't have much to live for, and Emily sits back and allows her drunk, high sister to go swimming in the lake, knowing she very likely won't come back.]]