To
be honest, I was expecting more from Stephen Frears. There is nothing wrong
with Lay the Favorite, but I found myself more irritated than entertained. This
is mostly because I was expecting more about the world of gambling, since the
film is based on a expose on the underworld by Beth Raymer. Instead of focusing
on these interesting details, the movie wastes no time to give way to romantic
melodrama. Perhaps in another film I would have been more interested in the
characters than the secret underworld of professional gamblers, but not in this
film and not with these characters.
We
are essentially given one secret of gamblers, which is the way that they place
throwaway bets just to change the odds before making their own real bet. Once
we are given this fact, the remainder of the film is essentially just a film
about romantic entanglements. Former stripper Beth (Rebecca Hall) wastes no
time in getting close to her gambler boss, Dink (Bruce Willis), despite his
marriage to a feared woman (Catherine Zeta-Jones).
When she separates
herself from that situation, Beth then becomes involved with another guy
(Joshua Jackson), but her gambling career keeps her from pursuing it. If only
we saw more of the gambling or if only there were a way to make gambling more
interesting to watch, Lay the Favorite may have been a more engaging film. I
understand the choice to make relationships just as dominant as the gambling; I
just wish that the melodrama were more interesting and less predictably cliché.
I guess that is what you get when borrowing from real life.
The Blu-ray
includes deleted scenes.
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