Movie Review: Another Simple Favor (2025)

Genre: Crime Comedy  

Director: Paul Feig  

Starring: Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Perkins, Henry Goulding  

Running Time: 120 minutes  

Synopsis: Mommy vlogger and amateur sleuth Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is struggling with diminishing popularity when she is approached by her conniving nemesis Emily (Blake Lively). Having maneuvered herself out of prison, Emily is gettering married to the wealthy Dante on the Italian island of Capri, and asks Stephanie to be her bridesmaid. With their disgruntled joint ex Sean (Henry Golding) also attending, it is soon apparent Emily is marrying into the mob, and worse is to come when her aunt Linda (Allison Janney) appears and dead bodies start showing up.

What Works Well: On a few occasions, Anna Kendrick threatens to rescue a scene or two with her persona's innate likeability. When they are not garish, some of Blake Lively's outfits are astonishing.

What Does Not Work As Well: A mechanical mess of a sequel with a plastic soul, this is a glossy conviction-free advertorial lacking heart and wit. The profanity-loaded script sinks under overwhelming dismissiveness, including a collective shrug-and-carry-on after every silly death and no one caring to check on a child after his father's bloody demise. The plot is impossible to follow, the intended twists lost within a morass of repugnant characters seeking cheap shock value through ever-more-bizarre sexual adventurism.

Key Quote:

Sean: I would rather shave my balls with a rusty knife than be at this wedding.

Emily: Oh, let me do that for you.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Moonlight And Valentino (1995)

Genre: Drama  

Director: David Anspaugh  

Starring: Elizabeth Perkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kathleen Turner, Whoopi Goldberg  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: College poetry teacher Rebecca (Elizabeth Perkins) is devastated when her husband is killed by a car while jogging. She receives emotional support from her neighbour Sylvie (Whoopie Goldberg); younger sister Lucy (Gwyneth Paltrow); and ex-stepmother Alberta (Kathleen Turner). Sylvie's marriage is in trouble, Lucy is a morose loner with body image insecurity, and Alberta is an unlikeable Wall Street executive. The months pass, and Rebecca finally perks up when a handsome housepainter (Jon Bon Jovi) appears in the neighbourhood.

What Works Well: The talented cast delivers reliably steady performances, achieving small victories for quiet moments of discomfort and dry humour. The idyllic wealthy suburban setting is quaint.

What Does Not Work As Well: Based on the autobiographical book by Ellen Simon (Neil's daughter), this is an aimless and listless drama. Beneath the soft focus packaging is an unconvincing exploration of grief involving poorly defined characters who fail to transition from glib to genuine. The pacing is languid, few if any insights register, and some late-in-the-day revelations appear out of nowhere and smack of narrative desperation. 

Key Quote:

Alberta: I'd rather imagine a man than know him for sure.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: The Doctor (1991)

A medical drama, The Doctor is one surgeon's awakening to the patient experience. The film carries earnest intentions, but suffers from limited narrative scope.

In San Francisco, Dr. Jack McKee (William Hurt) is a successful heart surgeon at a private hospital. Arrogant, flippant, and quick to deploy a wicked sense of humour, Jack operates with his business partner Dr. Kaplan (Mandy Patinkin). His marriage to Anne (Christine Lahti) is cold, since they barely see each other because of his hectic schedule.

Jack suffers from an increasingly irritating throat tickle that is finally diagnosed as a cancerous growth on his vocal chords. Under the care of Dr. Leslie Abbott (Wendy Crewson), Jack starts radiation therapy, and is exposed to the medical system from the patient's perspective. Now feeling vulnerable, his arrogant attitude gets him nowhere. He meets brain cancer patient June (Elizabeth Perkins), and his relationship with Anne suffers further. 

Based on the autobiography of Dr. Edward Rosenbaum, The Doctor re-teams star William Hurt with director Randa Haines after the success of 1986's Children Of A Lesser God. The script by Robert Caswell is well-intentioned and Hurt brings the central character to life with reasonable depth, but the straightforward message reaches an evident resolution then stalls.

The first act introduces Jack's glib approach to a successful career, his egotism developed from hours spent inside human bodies, the gift of life in his hands. The second chapter exposes him to the bureaucracy, waiting rooms, indignity, and frustrations experienced by every patient with a serious affliction. For the first time Jack is at the mercy of others inside his own hospital, and his attitude transforms.

Having held the scalpel then been subjected to it, The Doctor unfortunately has few places to go and plenty of time to kill. The film meanders through the final act with nothing really new to say, and stumbles towards a flat resolution. The poorly handled sub-plots don't help. Haines never grabs hold of the dynamic between Jack and Anne, resulting in a tactless emotional showdown. A lawsuit hovering over Jack and his partner Dr. Kaplan remains at the uselessly abstract level. The representation of Dr. Abbott is also wayward. Never less than capable and professional, she somehow ends up on Jack's bad side. 

Brain cancer patient Anne fares better and gains traction as a portal to a more organic and free-spirited perspective on life. Her scenes add poignancy, although mostly from Jack's perspective. John Seale's crisp and sleek cinematography is a positive, infusing the well-financed private medical system with a pristine look matching Jack's early scenes of invulnerable confidence. 

The Doctor always means well, but offers only an obvious diagnosis.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

The Movies Of Elizabeth Perkins

All movies starring Elizabeth Perkins and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are linked below:

About Last Night... (1986)

Big (1988)

He Said, She Said (1991)

The Doctor (1991)

Moonlight And Valentino (1995)

Must Love Dogs (2005)

Another Simple Favor (2025)

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.
The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Big (1988)

A fantasy comedy and romance, Big is a delightful story of a young teenager suddenly trapped into the body of an adult. With an impeccable Tom Hanks performance and a clever jaunt into the world of grownup business and romance through the eyes of an adolescent, Big is a flawless film.

In suburban New Jersey, Josh Baskin (David Moscow) is 13 years old and going through typical awkward early teen transitions along with his best friend and next-door-neighbour Billy (Jared Rushton). After a humiliating fairground experience, Josh stumbles onto a Zoltar Speaks fortune-telling arcade machine, and wishes to be big. His wish is granted. The next day Josh (Tom Hanks) wakes up the size of a 30 year old man. His family is utterly spooked and with the carnival having moved on, Josh flees to New York City and with Billy's help starts the search for another Zoltar to undo the damage.

To survive in the big city Josh lands a data entry job at the MacMillan Toy Company. His childlike outlook on the world of toys quickly comes to the attention of Mr. MacMillan himself (Robert Loggia), who promotes him to a Vice President much to the chagrin of the oily Paul Davenport (John Heard), a ruthlessly careerist fellow VP. But Paul's girlfriend and fellow MacMillan executive Susan Lawrence (Elizabeth Perkins) takes a liking to the innocent Josh, and they start a friendship. Josh gradually adapts to the world of adulthood, but Billy will not give up on finding a Zoltar machine.

Directed by Penny Marshall, Big is a heart warming tale about transitions. Mixing perfect doses of comedy with romance and commentary about what it means to be a grown-up, the film maintains a light touch and never loses its sense of wonder and innocence. The film is a journey into the adult world through the lens of a 13 year old, and with plenty of humour Marshall takes Josh on a tour of seedy hotels, corporate boardrooms, and the mysterious jungle of tangled romantic relationships in the workplace.

Despite the many laughs, Big works its way gradually to ask fundamental questions about growing up. When is soon too soon, is the enticing responsibility of adulthood worth sacrificing a childhood, and what happens to the sense of fun and wonderment when kids grow up. Josh is exposed to everything from the horrid conditions of a flop house to cutthroat office politics and the enchantment of romance, finding the adult world a complicated yet intriguing place to navigate.

And while this is the story of Josh dealing with a sudden transformation into a strange world, the film also focuses on his role as an unintended catalyst. Just by being himself, Josh exposes Paul's connivance, reawakens Susan's passion, and allows Mr. MacMillan to reconnect with the essence of his business. The multiple character threads create a richly textured film within a deceivingly simple framework.

Marshall conjures up a couple of magical scenes as exclamation marks to Josh's adventures. At a large toy store, Josh and Mr. MacMillan play on a floor-mounted foot-operated electronic keyboard to the delight of other customers. Later, Josh convinces Susan to let loose on his in-house trampoline. Both sequences capture the simple joy of living, and accentuate the need to stay in touch with the child within, and the benefits of occasionally shaking off the crustiness that forms with age.

Tom Hanks delivers a star-making performance. He never loses the essence of Josh as a 13 year old boy grappling with the adult world, and his mannerisms, expressions and wide-eyed purity are never far from the surface. Elizabeth Perkins plays a big part in the film's success, with Susan undergoing the biggest awakening due to Josh's inadvertent influence. Perkins is convincing both as a self-obsessed corporate shark, a love interest, and finally a woman who begins to understand what is important in life. The youngsters David Moscow and Jared Rushton add immeasurably to the enjoyment factor with natural depictions of smart but also awkward 13 year old friends.

Big is an exquisite package of entertainment, big on laughs and even bigger on heart.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: About Last Night... (1986)

A romantic drama, About Last Night... delves into the dynamics of the dating scene, and an intense modern relationship sparked by sex but threatened by lack of maturity. The film is a surprisingly raw and pleasurably painful exploration of the highs and lows of infatuation.

In Chicago, Danny (Rob Lowe) and Bernie (James Belushi) are best friends and co-workers at a restaurant supply business. They chase after women and sex for sport, but then Danny meets Debbie (Demi Moore), who works in marketing, and after terrific first date sex, they develop a serious and fierce physical attraction. Bernie and Debbie's roommate Joan (Elizabeth Perkins), a kindergarten teacher, are jealous of the rapidly building chemistry between Danny and Debbie, but they are helpless to stop it. Debbie quickly moves into Danny's apartment.

But then the realities of life start to intrude, as Danny brings his work pressures home with him, while Debbie is eager for the relationship to evolve from lust into love and a long term commitment. With Bernie and Joan doing little to help the lovers adapt to life as a couple, the burgeoning romance comes under stress, and neither Danny nor Debbie are well equipped to navigate the churning waters of togetherness.

[Debbie and Joan are watching from a distance as their friend Pat flirts with a group of guys at the bar:]
Joan: Oh god, Pat's going in for the kill. Oh my! That was a nice turn.
Debbie: With just a hint of giddiness.
Joan: Her big move should be coming up any moment. The combination hair flip with a giggle.
Debbie: There is a 3.2 level of difficulty here. Joan let's see if she can pull it off.
Joan: This is it... this is it... Oh Yes!
Debbie: Oh Yes! Yes! Oh Bravo! Bravo! 9.0!

Within the churn of an overheated dating carousel, Danny and Debbie find a lake of tranquility but go through their courtship backwards, starting with sex, then togetherness, and finally trying to get to know each other. It's a sequence that is bound to encounter plenty of bumps, and indeed About Last Night... is more about the troubles than the pleasures of a couple. Past relationships, work pressure, unhelpful best friends and unsynchronized expectations all crash into the apartment once Debbie moves in, and neither of them is prepared to answer the questions thrown by life onto committed couples.

[Joan is reading a story for her Kindergarten class]
Joan: 'And the Virgin Mary descended upon... '
Kid #1: What's a virgin?
Joan: A virgin is someone who's never had sex.
Kid #2: What's sex?
Joan: Sex is something men and women do to make a baby.
Kid #3: Are you a virgin?
Joan: No.
Kid #3: Do you have a baby?
Joan: No. People who don't want babies also have sex.
Kid #3: What for?
Joan: For about 10 or 15 minutes.

With a longish running length of close to two hours, About Last Night... takes its time in creating four interesting characters. Debbie and Danny are individually capable, physically attractive, sexually stunning, but potentially hopeless as a twosome. Bernie and Joan are much more prominent than the token friends often thrown into romantic movies. Here they play a continuous role and generate a source of disruptive tension, as they maintain the single, searching life while Debbie and Danny embark on a trial of what comes next. Director Edward Zwick patiently builds the central relationship over a period of one year, the changing seasons and succession of holidays marking milestones in a passion born in the spring and already floundering badly by winter.

Refreshingly raunchy in its depiction of sex between a couple who initially can't keep their hands off each other, the script by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue is always looking for the subtle differences between men and women, Debbie's quiet yearning for signs of long term commitment finally crashing against Danny's unexpurgated bachelor tendencies.

And while About Last Night... avoids all frat boy humour, there are plenty of clever touches and sharp commentary on everything from dating habits to the ups and down of friendships as represented by Bernie and Joan.

Bernie: You know something Joan, if you didn't have a pussy there'd be a bounty on your head.
Joan: And you are a schizophrenic, psychopathic, maladjusted social misfit who is clearly in the middle of a very deep homosexual panic.
Bernie: So you want to dance or what?

Both Rob Lowe and Demi Moore deliver exceptional performances, among the best of their respective careers. Lowe captures Danny as a young man swept off his feet but tortured by his inability to understand what comes after great sex. Torn between his old life as represented by Bernie and all the opportunity and mystery offered by a possible life partner, Lowe finds the vulnerability of a seemingly confident man suddenly confronting a load heavier than he can carry.

Even better is Moore, her performance as Debbie filled with determination clashing with disillusionment as the man of her dreams fails to live up to fairy tale expectations. Debbie is less a work in progress than Danny, and Moore conveys a woman buffeted by a near miss: the almost perfect man who may just glance off target.

Danny: I think I thought it was going to be different than it...
Debbie: Than what it was really like? Me, too. Maybe we were just - too naive.
Danny: Yeah, maybe. Maybe we knew too much.

Heartfelt and genuine, About Last Night... is about everything that happens after the magic of the first night meets the cold light of day.

All Ace Black Blog Movie Reviews are here.

Movie Review: He Said, She Said (1991)

A lightweight romantic comedy plays with an interesting premise, achieves little, and walks away leaving a mildly irritating impression. He Said, She Said is a talented cast mostly wasted with a dearth of ideas.

Dan (Kevin Bacon) and Lorie (Elizabeth Perkins) meet as young and competing reporters working for the same newspaper. He is a wild womanizer with shoot-from-the-hip opinions, she is seeking a more mature relationship and has more considered opinions. Opposites attract, and eventually they embark on a romance while gaining increased career fame as duelling columnists and TV personalities. But their differing levels of willingness to commit to a common future catches up with them and the relationship crashes publicly with Lorie throwing a mug at Dan's head on-air.

Script writer Brian Hohlfeld has spent a career writing material for various children's Winnie The Pooh type movies. With real humans and adult emotions he is unfortunately out of his depth. He Said, She Said is rarely funny, only tepidly romantic, and the challenges faced by Dan and Lorie and bland in the extreme: she doesn't wash her coffee cup! He doesn't want to commit! It's all fascinatingly unoriginal, and faced with a script lacking in any spark, co-directors Ken Kwapis and Marisa Silver can inject little life into the proceedings.

The one gimmick is in telling the relationship story, all in flashback, twice over: the first half of the movie represents Dan's viewpoint, while the second half replays the same events but from Lorie's perspective, with sometimes not so subtle differences in their respective recollection of events. While the technique is somewhat engaging, the sad truth is that there is barely enough of a story here to be told once, let alone twice.

Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth Perkins do their best, but they come across as more likely to be friendly work colleagues than lovers, and neither can bring any conviction into the romance. Sharon Stone does a fly-by as one of Dan's more serious and durable of many sex partners, but she is really just playing Sharon Stone, able to crush any competing woman with a single cold stare.

He Said, She Said, but nothing interesting was actually said.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.

Movie Review: Must Love Dogs (2005)

The romantic comedy meets on-line dating for an exploratory coffee, with results that mix pleasant small talk with a sweet-enough hug and kiss on the cheek at the end of the night as a strong cast helps push Must Love Dogs towards watchable territory.

Sarah (Diane Lane), an elementary schoolteacher in her early forties, is in a prolonged post-divorce slump, frumpy and semi-depressed despite the best attempts of her sister Carol (Elizabeth Perkins) to get her back into a relationship. Sarah's mood is not improved when she realizes that her widowed dad Bill (Christopher Plummer) is enjoying the single life with a succession of dates and overlapping relationships. Sarah is attracted to the hunky but shifty Bob (Dermot Mulroney), the parent of one of her students, but this does not stop Carol signing up Sarah to an on-line dating service, including in her profile that her suitors "must love dogs". Sarah immediately gets responses from 18 interested men, but most turn into the usual first-date disasters.

Jake (John Cusack) builds classic wooden canoes that nobody wants to buy, and his divorce has just been finalized. A hopeless romantic addicted to repeated viewings of Doctor Zhivago, Jake's divorce reinforces his view of love being doomed to tragic failure. His lawyer friend Charlie (Ben Shenkman) eventually convinces him to respond to on-line dating ads, where he ends up as one of Sarah's dates. Although their initial meetings are just short of disastrous, Sarah and Jake ignite enough of a spark to persist with building a relationship that eventually flourishes, pushing Sarah to decide between Jake's sensitivity and Bob's ruggedness.

John Cusack and Diane Lane make an engaging couple, mixing comic awkwardness with the warmth of damaged hearts looking to believe in love again. They are surrounded by a better than usual supporting cast, led by the indefatigable Christopher Plummer as Bill, marching ever onwards in his career and not hesitating to pursue companionship and romance as Sarah's sprightly dad. Stockard Channing adds colour as the earthy Dolly, one of Bill's more durable arm ornaments. Elizabeth Perkins, Dermot Mulroney and Ben Shenkman contribute welcome depth to the talent level.

Director Gary David Goldberg translates the quality of his television productions Family Ties and Spin City to the screen, keeping the comedy understated and allowing his stars to shine unencumbered by boorish behaviour or larger-than-life episodes.

On-line dating quickly transitioned from novelty to mainstream, and Must Love Dogs dates itself as an exploration of romance enabled by technology that was only new for a short period. Nevertheless, the film survives because as this genre never fails to remind us, true love triumphs over all adversity.

All Ace Black Movie Blog reviews are here.