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| Kendrick and Lively face off in A Simple Favor |
Carnage is also in the offing in David Mackenzie's Outlaw King, an improved variation of Braveheart. Chris Pine dons the mantle of hero as Robert Bruce with Florence Pugh as his queen. They are both well cast and deliver performances that temper restraint with fire. Mackenzie handles the pair's courtship adroitly, highlighting how unions were used to cement alliances that often proved temporary. Pugh's Elizabeth is imprisoned and tortured when her husband rebels against Edward the First of England. The anguish of Elizabeth's plight is illustrated well by Mackenzie when her parents beseech her to knuckle under to Edward's demands. In the heroic tradition, she chooses to share her husband's suffering. Part of the realism of the film is the lack of agency of the female characters compared to, say, the unbelievable antics of Sophie Marceau in Braveheart.
The film's relative historical accuracy is also evident in its scenes of combat. The Battle of Loudoun Hill sequence, which climaxes Outlaw King, displays well not only the tactics of the battle, but also its chaos. Stephen Dillane is sharp as Edward the First, Aaron Taylor-Johnson is suitably deranged as Douglas and the other players are uniformly stalwart. On the negative side, the narrative meanders and the cinematography is unnecessarily murky at times. Outlaw King is too old-fashioned in its narrative style and heroic ethos to impress present day critics, but, as Brahms said, there is still great music to be made in B sharp.
Paul Feig's A Simple Favor is his most accomplished film to date and his most enjoyable since Bridesmaids. The film has Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively playing mouse and cat in a suspense narrative with darkly comic undertones. The ending is overly convoluted, but the ride is bitchy fun.
Statuesque blonde Lively is well matched with the doll-like dark-haired Kendrick. Lively's character appears to have the upper hand for most of the film as she lords over the diminutive Kendrick. Lively's character dons masculine garb fitting for her omnivorous, shape-shifting sociopath.
However, Kendrick's character turns the tables as the film progresses, using Lively's manipulations as a tutelage in assertiveness. Her outfits change from childish naif to more mature and assured stylings. The film is largely Kendrick's to shoulder and she is up to the task. Part of the charm of the film is how the narrative unfolds the past lives of the two antagonists, so it would be churlish to reveal its surprises. Some are predictable, bur all are pleasing to the viewer no matter how unsavory. With characters on the verge of repeating self-defeating obsessive compulsive behavior, Feig seems to work best as a satirist on the edge of discomfort. Like Outlaw King, A Simple Favor is a successful present day take on classic film tropes. (3/6/2019)
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