YMMV / A Simple Favor

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Does Stephanie want Emily? Does Stephanie want to be Emily? Are those two even mutually exclusive?
  • There are some lines that could imply that Emily is secretly jealous of Stephanie, herself.
  • Did Emily ever love Sean, or Diana? Did she ever truly consider Stephanie her friend? More than a friend?
  • Is Sean really just using Stephanie for sex? When he tells all that stuff to Emily, she has a fucking gun pointed to his balls, and she's clearly jealous. It's possible he's just telling her what she wants to hear.
  • Was Davis and Chris's deaths really an accident, or did Davis intentionally crash?
  • Was the story about Emily and Sean's threesome with the TA true? On one hand, Emily is a pathological liar, but there are some moments between Sean and his TA Beth that imply something may have happened between them.
  • Emily claims she loves Nicky, but she's a pretty subpar parent, she is inattentive, talks to him like he's a dog, mentions she can barely remember to pack him lunch and drinks copiously around him. Does she actually love him or could she just not stand Stephanie having something she saw as rightfully hers?
• Awesome Music: This movie boasts an awesome soundtrack.
  • "Under My Skin" is a gloriously powerful and sexy song that plays as Sean and Stephanie hook up for the first time.
  • "Laisse Tomber Les Filles," which plays over the credits. Its use here is as awesome as the first time a cover of the original was used in a credits sequence.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: If you first heard about this movie for some reason other than because it contains a scene of Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick sharing a kiss, then you're a purer person than most.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Stephanie's little verbal showdown with Emily's boss.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Oh, come on. Emily's funny, charming, clever, and hot as hell. Of course people love her in spite of all she did.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Stephanie/Emily is easily the most popular pairing in the fandom and almost all of the fan content for the film is dedicated to the pairing. It is also more popular than either Emily or Stephanie with Sean, Emily's husband who Stephanie has an affair with and whom Stephanie was supposed to end up with until they changed the ending. It helps that not only do Stephanie and Emily share a lot of Les Yay, but their actresses, Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively respectively, also have great chemistry.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Stephanie's little moment with Nicky, Emily's son, after Emily's funeral, when Nicky loses his temper and beats up Miles, Stephanie's son. Rather than get angry and berate him, Stephanie sits quietly with him and tells him that what he's feeling is 100% normal. She then admits that there's nothing she can do to make the pain go away, but that they all miss Emily.
  Stephanie: So let's just sit here, and feel lousy, and watch the grass grow.
  • While Stephanie's viewers' comments are mostly a Funny Background Event, they can be surprisingly heartwarming, as her viewers do appear to genuinely care about her, some of them trying to help her find her friend, and offering words of support when Emily "dies."
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he's saying to be passive aggressive and bitchy, Darren is absolutely right to point out that Emily is using Stephanie for free childcare at the beginning of the movie.
• Jerkass Woobie: Emily has had a truly shitty life. Even her drowning her own sister is understandable, since said sister was blackmailing her and implicitly threatening her son. Everything she did next, however...
• Les Yay: Not least of which is Emily kissing Stephanie on the mouth. (Which Stephanie doesn't seem to mind in the slightest.)
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • While Emily's father deserves his death, it's still disturbing to hear his wailing as he's being burnt alive.
  • Emily's "corpse". The movie shows her drowned body, with lifeless eyes, veiny blue skin, and her hair and nails caked with marsh dirt all in graphic detail.
  • The scene where Stephanie clears out Emily's closet, only to discover an hour later all of it has been put back. It wouldn't be so scary, if not for the violin sound when Stephanie discovers it.
• One True Threesome: Some viewers have made a case for Stephanie/Emily/Sean. It would certainly solve a lot of problems... and, given the parties involved, probably create a lot more. (But hey, what's love without a little excitement?)
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Stemily.
• Squick: Stephanie slept with her half-brother, possibly more than once. True, she didn't even know he existed until she was an adult, but ewwwwwwwwwww. Plus, it's hinted he may be her son's birth father. Further, as he looks just like their dad when he was young, it implies that Stephanie may have been attracted to him'' as well (or worse, they had sex as well).
• The Woobie:
  • Poor Nicky. He may be rough sometimes, but the fact is, he's an innocent child who loses his mom, twice. First because everyone thinks she's dead, and then because she's sentenced to twenty years in prison. Kid's definitely gonna need therapy in five years, if not before then.
  • Sean, once you realize he really didn't hurt Emily, and is in fact an Unwitting Pawn in her scheming. It's clear he genuinely loves her, in spite of all her flaws... at least before he realized what a horrific manipulator she is.
  • Stephanie in the beginning, who has already lost her brother, husband and the other parents mock her incessantly behind her back for merely being a bit overenthusiastic. The only person in the movie who doesn't treat her like garbage is her son Miles. Being played by Anna Kendrick certainly helps.