Lay the Favorite

Based on Beth Raymer's "Lay the Favorite: A Memoir of Gambling," this is a fun and entertaining movie.

A sleeper at the box office for sure, but for those seeking 90 minutes to unwind and forget about reality for a while, this film takes its viewers on a fun, if not entirely realistic, ride through the lives of professional gamblers.

Other reviewers have criticized this movie for being simple, but that's what gives the movie its charm. (The book is probably more detailed and was well reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, and the New York Times Book Review).

Don't compare this movie to Rounders (Matt Damon & Edward Norton) or 21 (Kevin Spacey). It's not a drama with complicated plot lines, but a lighthearted, romantic comedy with a fun cast that's easy to watch.

The pull of this film for me was the cast; Bruce Willis, Joshua Jackson, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vince Vaughan... and that it looked a funny premise. I didn't realise it was based on a true story - the story of Beth (Beth Raymer) who leaves small town America to make a life for herself in the big city, bright lights of Vegas.

I always enjoy stories where girls build themselves up from nothing, doing whatever it takes and I liked Beth's outlook on life well played by Rebecca Hall light-heartedly and convincingly. Her character was flighty and silly, and it is nice to see such a story where horrible things didn't happen to her (lucky!) Other than the language in this film (the worst of which is from the Welsh lips of Ms Zeta-Jones, almost unrecognisable as American, Tulip both in terms of look and character) it's pretty innocent, some topless sunbathing excepting. Bruce Willis wasn't so Bruce Willis as usual and I liked his wayward yet lovable character and he brought some much needed contour to otherwise quite flat performances. During the film I did wonder why everyone was so one-dimensional but as it's a true story, they were I suppose just going with the story that happened - some of the reactions people had were unexplained, as were Beth's seemingly easy transitions. The gorgeous and talented Joshua Jackson was under-utilised in this film as an actor but seeing as it was a character-based biopic there's not much that could be done about that. Vince Vaughan managed to be exactly who he usually is in films, and Laura Prepon as Holly had a good, small part character role which she did really well in.

The film is about gambling so I didn't understand all that went on but there were moments where it was quite tense, given what was being done was illegal, but the end was predictable but as it's a true story why shouldn't it be? You cared enough about the characters that you did want a happy ending and it's nice that Beth's good personality and sunny disposition wins out and all is well. As films go - biopic aside - it's not that great as it wasn't particularly challenging or deep, and the main character's antics were naïve and rather silly, so you find her a little annoying, but she was plucky and from the point of view of the real person she did very well for herself. It is, what it is. It entertained for an hour or so but I'm glad I didn't see it at the cinema as I would have been disappointed as it wasn't as funny as I expected. It's definitely an average, middle of the road standard film on all counts; screenplay, direction and performances but it's worth watching.

If I hadn't seen Rebecca Hall in any other movie I guess I wouldn't have been amazed by the transformation or her performance in general in this movie. You really buy her ... let's call it naive nature, she puts on display here. Bruce Willis is pretty passive, which works in a way, but not throughout. Joshua and Catherine are not used in the best way possible, but the main focus is on Rebecca so that can be forgiven.

Story-wise, there is not that much exciting or new happening, the jokes are not always working, but the movie has a low budget charm to it (if you can accept that and not look at it as a star vehicle movie with a big budget). It's a nice little movie, that has more potential than it shows on screen.

"Lay the Favorite" has many dissenters, most complaining that it's completely unbelievable. It's true, it is. Beth (Rebecca Hall) is a ditzy bimbo who quits her job as a stripper and moves to Las Vegas to become a cocktail waitress. A great idea! Instead, as soon as she arrives, she gets a very lucrative job as a sports bettor for a bookie who isn't a bookie since bookmaking is illegal. She's a genius with numbers and words.

She's also capable of getting guys to do whatever they think she wants. They need to do the thinking since she's too dumb to even know what she wants. The kicker to this story of an over-sexed, ditzy bimbo, numbers genius, sports-betting millionaire, is that it's a true story. I decided to watch the YouTube video of the real Beth Raymer reading from her memoir which this film is based on to see if Hall accurately captured her varying characteristics. And she did. She does the hair twirl and the dumb girl giggle as she describes the kings of sports gambling giving her job after job after job.

I'm one of the few who liked Rebecca Hall in this. So different from her usual indie fare. She has to ooze sex and play beautiful even though she has never really been described that way before. But in order to like this movie at all, you need to care about this floozy. Other than her ridiculous free ride through life, nothing really interesting happens to her.

Her first job in Vegas is with Dink (Bruce Willis) who owns Dink Inc. She loves him, he loves her … mind? Yeah, right. Apparently he does. So when she gets herself in trouble along with a nice, smart successful guy (Joshua Jackson) who doesn't seem to mind throwing his life away for her, he comes to the rescue.

Personally, I found Hall's sexy naiveté and Willis' extreme gambling entertaining enough to keep watching. However, the movie doesn't seem to play the unfortunate reality that this is a true story for laughs. When there's a story too unbelievable to be true then you should be making fun of everybody who allowed it to occur, instead the film just wanted the audience to go along for a fun ride. It is somewhat fun, it's also very unbelievable, and ultimately, pretty stupid.

Who Might Like This: Anybody who likes seeing ditzy bimbos succeed in life; people who like watching unbelievably true stories; fans of Rebecca Hall.

Beth (Rebecca Hall) is an ex private dancer, looking to make it big in Las Vegas. She meets Dink (Bruce Willis) a sports gambler who shows her the ways of betting. Dink gets very close with Beth, much to the ire of Dink's wife Tulip (Catharine Zeta-Jones)

I generally try to respect people's opinions these days. I'm a rather opinionated person myself, so I implore people to speak their minds. But, one thing I can't get my head around is the low rating for this movie, 4.7, huh? Granted, it's not gonna make head spin if you decide to see it, but I thought it had energy and lots of likability to it. Lay The Favorite benefits from a fantastic cast. Gambling is a very touchy subject among people. It's always a risk (No. I didn't use the word gamble, because that would have been a lame pun) when one gambles. Maybe people felt this movie glorified gambling in a way? I don't know. I could see that, but I thought the addition of romance was very much needed here. I would have gotten bored if it was all about gambling. The development of the characters is what made this movie. I thought Bruce Willis brought a fine comedic touch, and genuinely seemed to be interested in the material. His relationship with Rebecca Hall was funny and touching. Willis was quite good here. I cracked up at the mini meltdowns he had. Rebecca Hall is fantastic. Her energetic performance, and her perky style does wonders for this movie, and I had my eyes glued to the screen every moment she was on it. She's sexy, cute, funny, and downright irresistible. She was a main reason as to why I enjoyed this as much as I did. I also enjoyed her love story with Joshua Jackson. Zeta-Jones is OK as Dink's husband. She had a couple of sassy moments here and there. Vince Vaughn is a bit OTT as Rosy, but managed to not get on my nerves, which is a big compliment in his case. The ending seemed totally Hollywood, and contrived. For some reason, I had trouble buying it. It seemed to me like the message was "The risk of gambling is worth it, and if you take risks, you might wind up lucky" That's a minor carp, though.

Final Thoughts: I had a decent time with this film. It passes the time effortlessly, and you won't regret watching it. It's not something I'll ever see again, but I didn't mind it at all, and I think people are really unfair with it.

5.7/10