The good news is that I still very much want to see Paul Feig’s adaptation of Darcy Bell’s novel A Simple Plan. I like Feig, I like pulpy little thrillers of this nature, and I like Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively for professional and personal reasons. Jokes about prurient interest aside, Lively especially remains a deeply underrated actress (Age of Adaline is an underseen and underappreciated melodrama), and we all should have started taking her seriously at least after The Shallows. So, yeah, the chance to see the two of them square off or merely interact in a glamorous bit of old-school pulp fiction should by itself be worth the price of admission. Having said that, I wish I hadn’t watched this trailer.
It’s a good trailer in the sense of offering content that makes me (and presumably general audiences who will see this trailer playing with Skyscraper or Mama Mia! Here We Go Again over the next few weeks) want to see the movie. The bad news is that, at a glance, it looks awfully spoiler-y. No, it doesn’t give away firm answers about “What happened to Emily?” but it sure provides a lot of meaty moments and, even sans context, spoiler-y material that will get your gears churning. I don’t blame Lionsgate for releasing this conventional trailer to get folks to see the movie (marketing is about putting butts in seats). But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell you, dear readers, not to watch it.
That’s the danger of movie marketing in a nutshell. Even if this trailer doesn’t give away the big secrets, it offers major moments that audiences will come to expect when they watch the movie. The second trailers for Ant-Man and the Wasp and Mission: Impossible Fallout qualify as well, technically being spoiler-free sells that nonetheless offer a ton of prime action content. Both trailers, like the Fast and Furious 6 trailers that I complained about back in the day, essentially spoil much of the action, even if they leave the story and character beats unrevealed. So, slight digression, if you haven’t already seen it, I’d avoid that second Fallout trailer and just keep playing the first one on a loop while you work out.
Anyway, this looks rock-solid and it’s one of my more anticipated movies for the rest of the year. I can only hope that I won’t regret glancing at this trailer whenever I do get around to seeing the film. Of course, there’s nothing to stop me from reading the book between now and Sept. 14, as I keep telling myself that I need to start reading again. Come what may, A Simple Favor, starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively and Henry Golding (who will also be romancing Constance Wu in next month’s Crazy Rich Asians… tough life) opens two months from today. Now let us hope that this is the final full-on trailer, lest Lionsgate and friends give the game away by virtue of attrition.
