A Simple Favor (2018) review

Single mother and vlogger Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) becomes quick friends with abrasive fellow mom Emily (Blake Lively) - they both have sons in elementary school - and they spend time together drinking martinis and talking about their personal lives, so when Emily asks Stephanie to pick up her child one day and then proceeds to disappear, Stephanie transforms herself into an Internet Detective ... and she and Emily's writer husband Sean (Henry Golding) start a romantic relationship.  The chick-lit premise is okay, I suppose, but it winds up being an atrocious riff on Hitchcock: the tone is completely off, college professor Sean comes across like a total dingbat, Stephanie is allowed to go anywhere she wants to find exactly what she needs and none of it is remotely convincing (the junkie twin sister who suddenly shows up is an example of lazy writing).  I missed this the year it initially came out, but it's gained a cult audience since then and a sequel's been shot - I only hope it's a teensy bit more grounded in reality ... and that they swap out the pond water that is Aviation Gin for Tanqueray.