As a big Bruce Willis fan, I’m interested to see that he’s picking some slightly offbeat roles recently. Firstly in Wes Anderson’sMoonrise Kingdom (surely the equivalent to Arnold Schwarzenegger starring in a Coen Brothers film or Sylvester Stallone leading an Alexander Payne flick) and now in Stephen Frears’ Lay the Favourite, which shares its theme of the trials and tribulations of young woman maturing into adulthood with his previous feature, Tamara Drewe.
The film is led by an irrepressibly bubbly Rebecca Hall, who plays Beth Raymer, a vaguely idiot-savant character and private dancer who moves to Las Vegas to seek her fortune. There she falls under the wing of Willis’s charismatic bookmaker, Dink, who employs her based on her skills with numbers. They embark on a pseudo-romance that properly irks Dink’s emotionally fragile wife Tulip, boldly played by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Despite Beth’s cool head and street smarts, things get out of hand for her when she becomes embroiled with Rosie (Vaughn), a slightly bananas fellow bookie operating illegally in New York.
The tale is based on the real Beth Raymer’s memoir. Given that the film seems to cram quite a lot into its relatively short runtime, I would guess that the book is probably quite an interesting read. I got the impression that quite a lot of stuff had happened to our hot panted-heroine prior to the beginning of the film and that more would follow after the credits rolled. It’s to Hall’s credit that her portrayal suggests this sense of history for her character. She gives a lovely, endearing performance; her Beth at first seems to be an adult that has never grown up past teen-hood. As the film progresses, her innate and shrewd intelligence reveals itself. I loved Hall in her supporting roles in the none-more-bleak Red Riding and in The Prestige, so it’s fantastic to see her given a leading role to show off her talents. Willis is also very good. On the strength of this performance, I’d hope he continues to plump for more dramatic roles, rather than phoning it in on the latest 50 Cent film or whatever.
For all its considerable charms though, Lay the Favourite is perhaps just that little bit too frothy and ultimately, somewhat forgettable. Though the world of gambling it portrays is ruthless, the film unfortunately lacks true grit. A more personal criticism would be that the film does little to explain the complex mechanics of professional gambling, which is one of the few arenas of life where my knowledge is considerably less than total (ahem). As such, I was often a bit lost as to what was actually happening; obviously I could tell when the stakes were high and when Good Things and Bad Things happened to the characters, but Frears could have done more to involve the audience in the mechanics of the action, that is if you can call lots of phone calls and digits changing on screens action. Though maybe I’m simply prejudiced against Frears, given how rude he was to me at the Tamara Drewe premiere.
Those criticisms aside though, Lay the Favourite is a wholly enjoyable film. Its main strength is its very decent cast. Even Vince Vaughn, who hasn’t been in a halfway decent film in at least five years, is pretty good. The characters are likable, the plot engaging enough and the script often impresses. Whilst it probably won’t set the multiplexes alight, Lay the Favourite is sure to find its audience on television or DVD in years to come. A light but likable film.
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