“Lay the Favorite” is the latest film that is released under the new Radius-TWC label. The film is based on the best-selling memoirs “Lay the Favorite: A Story about Gamblers” by Beth Reymer.
The film is about a former stripper (Rebecca Hall), who aspires to be a cocktail waitress. Everything changes for her, when she meets a professional odds maker (Bruce Willis). He introduces her to the world sports gambling. While she begins to turn his world upside down, she also learns that she has a knack for numbers. The business of sports betting will never be the same. Catherine Zeta Jones, Joshua Jackson and Vince Vaughn co-stars in this film.
Film Review:
I might be the only one that actually liked this film, as I’ve heard a lot of bad review for this one.. Going into this film, I thought this would end up like Radius-TWC's last film "Butter". A film where a lot of big name talents got together to phone in their performances and had a good time in the process. But I'm very surprised, this film wasn't like that. I'm very thankful that "Lay the Favorite" was actually a good film with solid performances that I enjoyed.
One of the main reasons for that was Stephen Fears' direction. What I liked about the direction was the fact that he carefully made sure that everything worked well on screen. Whether it’s the way the scenes were carefully set-up and shot to the way that they are captured on film, Fears does a good job making the scenes work. It's important to do that to keep the viewer interest. The other thing that made the direction good was the way the acting was handled. Fears does a very good job making sure that the cast made their characters interesting. It adds to the quirkiness that I liked about this film.
Speaking of the acting, I thought Rebecca Hall was very good, as the film's lead. She made the character interesting, by giving the character a very quirky personality that keeps you watching. It also made the film and the performance fun to watch. The film also has good supporting performances from Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vince Vaughn in an uncredited performance.
The screenplay was written by the film's producer D.W. DeVincentis was good. One of the things that makes it good was the way the dialogue was written. It had a quirkiness to it. Whether it’s coming from the main character to some of the supporting characters, it had that kind of tone where it kept me interested and created some funny moments. The other thing that makes it work was the character development. DeVincentis does a good job following the main character through the underworld of gambling and how it never changed her. It made the story interesting and it didn't lose its quirky tone.
Blu-Ray Extras:
Sadly, there isn't much in the way of extras. The only extra on this disc were seven minutes of deleted scenes. It would have been nice to have had extras on the making of this film. It would've added something to the disc.
Final Summary:
"Lay the Favorites" is a nice film filled with good performances and good direction from Stephen Fears. It's a film that you should take a chance with even though it hasn’t receive many positive reviews.
Review Rating: Three and a Half Stars
Blu-Ray Extras: One Star
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