• Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

Flickering Myth

Geek Culture | Movies, TV, Comic Books & Video Games

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket

DVD Review – Lay the Favorite (2012)

January 28, 2013 by admin

Lay the Favorite, 2012.

Directed by Stephen Frears.
Starring Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Rebecca Hall, Joshua Jackson, Vince Vaughn, Laura Prepon, John Carrol Lynch, Corbin Bersen and Frank Grillo.

SYNOPSIS:

An exuberant ex-private dancer Beth (Rebecca Hall) arrives in Las Vegas in search of her ultimate dream to become a cocktail waitress. Fate leads her to Dink (Bruce Willis), a charming, old-school gambler who seeing beyond the ditzy façade, takes a shine to Beth, recruiting her as his good luck charm.

Stephen Frears is a director and filmmaker known for work as varied as Dangerous Liaisons, High Fidelity and The Grifters and is seen to be someone with a propensity to take surprising changes of direction whenever possible. With Lay the Favorite, a lightly amusing, if grossly underwhelming, comedy drama – or dramedy, if you insist on it – Frears takes another unexpected (and many would say, wrong) turn.

Based on the memoirs of erotic dancer turned sports bookmaker and lucky charm Beth Raymer, the movie is a flawed and unashamedly cute look at the occasionally glamorous and often desperate world of American gambling.

Rebecca Hall (The Prestige, The Town) is likeable enough as the central figure in what would be judged as a too weird to be true tale if it wasn’t based on actual events (however poetically embellished).

Following Beth’s lightheaded salsa through life, from quitting her job as an ‘exotic dancer’ and leaving for Las Vegas to life as a cocktail waitress and then a Rainman-esque statistics genius, Lay the Favorite depends on a pretty convoluted narrative thread. At times it feels as though it is going to unravel at any moment, almost as if the memory of Raymer has been somewhat selective and chosen to miss out the parts that link scenes in any conventional or lucid fashion.

Much of it revolves around Beth’s mixture of ditzy and fortuitous and the relationships she forms with three men; Bruce Willis’ (Die Hard, The Expendables 2) largely besotted bookmaker Dink, Vince Vaughn’s (Wedding Crashers, The Watch) creepy seemingly life-coached rival and later, Joshua Jackson’s (The Skulls, Dawson’s Creek) solid, reliable reporter Jeremy.

Catherine Zeta-Jones (Traffic, Chicago) displays a surprisingly intense comedic turn as Dink’s controlling wife Tulip, the reason why he feels he has to fire Beth and put her on the trail to working for Vaughn’s go-getting boss.

None of the quick fire routines of The Grifters make their way into this rushed and badly executed piece. Non sports fans are likely to find much of the detail, or what there is, of the betting world meandering and dull, whereas a lot of the relationship interaction is over played and over the top, almost sit-com style.

Despite sterling support a strong cast largely from Willis as Beth’s (first) manic bookie boss and uncomfortable love interest and John Carroll Lynch’s (Shutter Island, Zodiac) late appearance as a bumbling hit man, the movie feels undeveloped and distinctly patchy. It is cute enough and you certainly wouldn’t want to see it out on the street sleeping rough, but you expect something far more accomplished from Frears and those involved. With all of Raymer’s capacity for picking out a winner, you can’t help feeling she could have made a better bet of a film adaptation. 

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★

Robert W Monk is a freelance journalist and film writer.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

FMTV – Watch Our Latest Video Here

WATCH OUR MOVIE NOW FOR FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE:

Ten Essential Korean Cinema Gems

What Will Amazon Do with James Bond?

10 Movie Franchises That Need To End

David Lynch: American Cinema’s Great Enigma

The Best 90s and 00s Horror Movies That Rotten Tomatoes Hate!

The Essential 90s Action Movies

Great Movies That Are An Absolute Masterclass in Acting

What If? Five Marvel Movies That Were Almost Made

Francis Ford Coppola In And Out Of The Wilderness

The Most Obscure and Underrated Slasher Movies of the 1980s

Top Stories:

Crazy Cult 80s Movies You May Have Missed

Movie Review – Superman (2025)

4K Ultra HD Review – Quatermass 2 (1957)

Movie Review – Sovereign (2025)

“Dexter In Space” – Michael C. Hall talks 20 years of Dexter and where the killer will go next

Movie Review – Abraham’s Boys (2025)

Matilda Lutz is Red Sonja in trailer for long-delayed fantasy reboot

Great Tarantino-esque Movies You Need To See

STREAM FREE ON PRIME VIDEO!

FEATURED POSTS:

Speed: The Story Behind the Pulse-Pounding Action-Thriller

Great 90s Neo-Noir Movies You Might Have Missed

15 Movies To Watch On Tubi UK

Must-See Modern Horror Movies You Might Have Missed

Our Partners

  • Pop Culture
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Comic Books
    • Video Games
    • Toys & Collectibles
  • Features
    • News
    • Reviews
    • Articles and Opinions
    • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Flickering Myth Films
    • FMTV
  • About
    • About Flickering Myth
    • Write for Flickering Myth
    • Advertise on Flickering Myth
  • Socials
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Bluesky
    • Instagram
    • Flipboard
    • Linktree
    • X
  • Terms
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

© Flickering Myth Limited. All rights reserved. The reproduction, modification, distribution, or republication of the content without permission is strictly prohibited. Movie titles, images, etc. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. If you can read this, you don't need glasses.


 

Flickering MythLogo Header Menu
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Articles & Opinions
  • Write for Us
  • The Baby in the Basket