Lay the Favourite [DVD]

Lay The Favourite (LTF) is the story of Beth Raymers real-life memoir of the same name. It follows our Beth (played by Rebecca Hall - The Town) as she works her way around the sinuous and shady world of bet-making bookies, starting with Dink (Bruce Willis - Looper) in Las Vegas moving down the scale to the even shadier New York bookie Rosie (Vince Vaughn - Wedding Crashers) and having to deal with her feelings for Dink and the scorn incurred from his wife Tulip (an unrecognisable Catherine Zeta-Jones - Rock of Ages) - when a client Beth represents welchs on his debt, he uses the threat of Federal involvement to scare her off, but Beth will not be shaken so easily, will she make a name for herself in this cut-throat industry?

Where to begin? Rebecca Hall is great in LTF; she is sexy yet eloquent enough to pull of the slightly more technical side of the job. She carries LTF despite her ditsy mannerisms; Bruce Willis is OK but nothing special in his role as an aging bookie whilst Vince Vaughn really phoned this one in - he wasn't funny or entertaining for the entire 94-minute bit.

Consequently, LTF really feels a bit contrived as far as stories go; they skim over the technical side of how the book-making works; content with onscreen stacks of money and shouting at television screens showing sporting events to fill in the substance. Tulip's complete reversal in opinion of Beth is a bit nonsensical and Dink just seemed to be a pretty anaemic character. There is a completely tacked-on love-interest for Beth (Jeremy played by Joshua Jackson - Fringe) that is intangible and uninteresting and the cinematography is instantly forgettable - not inherently bad - but nothing memorable.

There are a couple of meaningless twists along the way, but ultimately I had no real interest in the protagonists or their outcome, especially when the credits are accompanied by black & white text on screen explaining the ultimate fate of the characters - Beth went on to get her degree and become a writer, which is such a tangential jump to the story we just saw that it makes no sense; she was passionate about gambling, wanted to be in it so much and was good at it, so when did the change of heart occur?! Nonetheless, I'm not actually that concerned, with a $26.5 million budget and a box-office figure of a mere $21,000 generated (from 61 screens!!!) I definitely would not put my money on this horse. Avoid.

Laughed all the way through it, never a dull moment and I learned a lot about illegal gambling. Bruce Willis is terrific and watched the whole movie without realising that he was starring opposite Catherine Zeta-Jones. She is amazing in this, playing a red head and with a faultless American accent. I spent the whole movie wondering who she was! Definitely a movie you can watch several times, and I will.....

I bought this to watch when I do the ironing. It was a 'fun' film & I like Bruce Willis so suitable for purpose