Lay the Favorite [Blu-ray]
Lay the Favorite [Blu-ray]
Beth Raymer (Rebecca Hall) leaves her dancing job at a Florida strip club to become a Las Vegas cocktail waitress. In walks Dink (Bruce Willis), a professional sports bettor who sees through her bubbly exterior and offers her a job placing wagers all over town to gain an advantage over the casinos. Her surprisingly impeccable mind for numbers soon cements her status as Dink’s good-luck charm, until his gorgeous-but-frigid wife, Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones), starts to get jealous. Faced with no other choice but to fire Beth, Dink’s luck runs out when she heads to New York to work for a smarmy bookie, a turn of events that lands her squarely on the wrong side of the law. Based on a true story, LAY THE FAVORITE is a heartfelt comedy of finding
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A Complete Tonal Misfire Despite An Interesting Cast And A Once Great Director,
It wasn’t exactly easy to make it to the end of the tone deaf comedy “Lay The Favorite.” When I got there, though, I was in for a huge shock. The credits rolled and I realized that Stephen Frears was responsible for directing this! In case you haven’t heard of him, the Oscar nominee has orchestrated some truly great films including The Queen, The Grifters, and Dangerous Liaisons. Well nothing could be further from these excellent films than this flight of fancy. Based on a true story, an expose on the world of gambling by Beth Raymer, the plot had the potential to be absolutely fascinating. In fact, I’d love to read Raymer’s memoir. I think it would be very enlightening. But instead of a hard hitting drama, Frears has removed any sense of reality from the picture. I don’t care that he wanted to make something light and comedic, but this isn’t serious enough for a drama, funny enough for a comedy, informative enough for gambling enthusiasts, or rich enough in character so that anyone might actually care about what happens. In short, the movie has no idea what it wants to be and that is very apparent.
Rebecca Hall plays the central character as a chirpy stripper who is simultaneously brilliant and clueless. She dreams of the big time, she wants to be a waitress in Las Vegas! She gets involved, instead, with an odds-maker played by Bruce Willis. She’s a natural at the game and soon becomes invaluable to the operation. Willis’s wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) doesn’t like the closeness between the two and this causes much friction. As Hall sets out on her own, she gets into some trouble from which she may not be able to extricate herself. Hint: It involves Vince Vaughn. It just might require a little help from her friends and a caper is afoot. And boy, there’s no stopping this crew when they are joined!
One of my biggest issues with “Lay The Favorite” is that it is all over the map in tone. And none of it really works, nothing is developed in enough depth to get you involved. Even the gambling aspect of the picture is lackluster and pedestrian. I never cared about anything that happened. Willis seems to be sleepwalking, Hall is positively grating, and everyone else is pretty much wasted. Hall has a love affair with Joshua Jackson, but we never know the first thing about him. The character development is so sketchy as to be virtually non-existent. A few of the smaller roles scored and Zeta-Jones has presence. The experience, for me, had no real laughs, no real danger, no real romance. I’ve certainly been a fan of Frears, Willis and Zeta-Jones in other projects. Here, though, I’m hard pressed to tell you anything that I like about this misguided effort. About 1 1/2 stars, I’m not sure why I’m rounding up. KGHarris, 3/13.
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|Not as good as I thought it’d be…,
The girl playing the lead gets on your nerves, since she seems like she’s on hyperspeed all of the time. Did Catherine Zeta Jones get a major face lift? And of course Vince Vaugn is in it, he’s very funny. I liked seeing him and Bruce, they were great. But I expected more, in general. It was like watching squirrels run around in those little wheels things….I should have waited until it was ALOT cheaper, like in Prime….buyer beware–
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|Really really lame,
Such an established cast and yet failed on every level. Really disappointed that I spent ten dollars to watch this dud.
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