I don’t want to give too much away, but the simple casting of Anna Kendrick as Stephanie, the mommy blogger main character means that this movie had to be drastically different from what was on the page. And though I am curious about the film and will give it a fair shake, having Kendrick play Stephanie is a near certainty that my favorite part of the book will get lost – which is that Stephanie is kind of a low watt bulb.
The best friend asking the “simple favor” of the title kind of looks down on her and Stephanie sees her as somewhat aspirational. Stephanie runs a “mommy blog” and agrees to watch her son for a short time, but then Emily disappears and Stephanie deals with the aftermath in both her private thoughts and the twisted public facing blog in differing ways.
Anna Kendrick is just not someone I buy as one wrong financial move away from selling Younique makeup or garish leggings and calling herself a boss babe. The movie has to take a different turn. Which might still be interesting, but the rest of the book is kind of Gone Girl Lite, the naïveté of Stephanie and how she is just clueless enough to think she has it all figured out was what made the book for me.
As for my overall assessment of the book: Mostly good, some inspired touches, a lot of credulity stretching, worth the buck it cost at goodwill but not sure I’m keeping it.