L'ombre d'Emily

Apologetic, seemingly pristine vlogger and single mother Stephanie is thrown for a loop upon meeting beautiful, libertine (and manipulative) alpha female fashionista Emily when their schoolchildren arrange for a play date. Despite being polar opposites, the two women quickly form a friendship, but when Emily's whereabouts suddenly become unknown, Stephanie has her life turned completely upside down while trying to discover the fate of her new best friend. What initially begins as a straightforward drama eventually shifts tone into the realm of dark comedy and mystery thriller/whodunit, with an array of twists and turns (some which probably wouldn't bear close scrutiny) that seem to have taken a page from the works of Hitchcock! Tonally the film is all over the place, and makes some unusual choices for musical interludes, but it's never dull, often laugh-out loud funny, and benefits from an uninhibited performance from Lively, but it falls apart in the third act with an underwhelming ending that (possibly by intention?) feels like self-parody. **½

The movie was quite enjoyable for the longest time. Well paced, well acted (mostly). Then the conclusion happened. Like seriously what where they thinking.

Not only was it bad (I guess that's just an opinion, but still), it was also a lot worse written, paced and acted than the rest of the movie, up to the point where the only explanation is that the producers or SOMEONE wanted the ending changed to... this. The movie would have been a lot better if it just ended half an hour earlier. The ending is one of the worst I have seen in years.

My wife an I were pleasantly surprised by this gem. The two lead actresses did a great job. The first half of the movie kept you engaged. The second half dragged a bit but overall it was a very good film!

Watching Blake on screen never dissapoints, but in this picture also Anna has a great performance from the almost naive soccer mom to the character at the end of the movie without losing the essence of her rol. Even though I would have change small aspects of the script, the plot kept me going trying to figure out the truth behind everything. The balance between the terrible things that happen and the everyday routine of a suburban neighborhood is, in my opinion, excellent. The movie was very much worth the time.

I've seen so many noir type films that there's nothing surprising to me. I had very low expectations for this film. So it was better than I thought it would be. Fun film.