Lay the Favourite Review

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.

Tamara Drewe Premiere Report

The last time I was at the Odeon in Leicester Square, it was with my dad to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age. He won’t thank me for telling you this, but at the time he had drunk somewhat more than a bottle of plonk and was, shall we say, ‘getting into’ the movie. By the time the Spanish Armada had set sail, Mr Kirby was behaving like a spectator at a particularly rowdy football match, whooping and cheering as Spanish galleons sank and rather passionately imploring Clive Owen to kick some paella-eating arse.

Tonight’s premiere of Tamara Drewe was a rather more sedate affair (in fact, other than location, that tale has nothing to do with the premiere; it’s just an anecdote I like to tell whenever the slightest opportunity arises). Cast, crew and various ‘slebs’ turned up, despite iffy weather and tube strikes, to walk themselves down the red carpet, which on this occasion, was bordered by green turf, a stile, square bales, fake sheep and an enormous pink cow (also fake).

In the press pen (again fitting with the farmyard theme), competition for soundbites was fierce. As such, the snatches of conversation presented below are a composite of both my own and other reporter’s questions. The first person to brave the gaggle in the ‘print/radio/online’ pen was none other than the succinct if nothing else director, Stephen Frears…

Some people were surprised to learn that Tamara Drewe was based on a comic, is that a reaction that in turn surprises you?

Well most films based on comics are about superheroes, aren’t they? This one isn’t. It’s been drawn by a brilliant woman. In other words there are intelligent comics and stupid comics and would hope that you read the intelligent ones and not the stupid ones.

So if you think superhero comics are stupid, is it unlikely that you’ll be directing a Marvel adaptation any time soon?

I don’t know, I’ve read one comic in my life and I’ve made a film of it!

Did you go back to Thomas Hardy [whose Far From the Madding Crowd the graphic novel was loosely based and is referenced frequently in the film] when you were preparing the film?

Not at all.

How familiar were you with the comic when you got the script?

I’ve known Posy [Simmonds, author of the strip] for about thirty years and I read it in The Guardian.

(I chip in at this point) What can we expect from the film?

(Frears gives me a look somewhere between disgust and contempt) Good jokes and sex.

Then he plods off.

If I thought the impression I made was bad, I was glad not to be in the shoes of the journo standing next to me, who paid the embarrassing price for not quite doing quite as much research as was required when quizzing Roger Allam…

Tamara Drewe’s not the typical comic book movie, would you ever consider or be interested in doing the traditional comic movie?

I’ve done some. I’ve done two actually. I did two for the Wachowski Brothers, V for Vendetta, which was quite serious and Speed Racer.

Would you ever do any more?

Well yes, I probably would!

Allam laughs jovially, somewhat sparing the guy of any further embarrassment.

Next, the lovely Tamsin Greig rolls up…

How does it feel to be a member of a cast that features some great comedic roles for women? Are women sidelined somewhat in comedies?

Well, I’m a woman who has been privileged enough to work and I’ve always had really lovely and interesting roles, so I’m probably the last person to ask. I think Posy Simmonds is a woman who knows what women are like, so you can do her drawings and writing from her own perspective. I think the fact that Love Soup [the light-hearted comedy that Grieg starred in] was written by a man was a wonderful miracle. David Renwick really got under the skin of the female characters. The three characters were equally hilarious in their own way, which is a testament to his genius.

The ending of Love Soup was perfect, but I can’t help but want more. Is there any chance you’ll be working with David on it again?

Well I’d love to, he’s a wonderful writer, but like you said, there was a perfect conclusion to the story.

Finally, Posy Simmonds comes over to our little corner for a chat.

A lot of people seem surprised that Tamara Drewe was based on a comic, what’s your reaction to their reaction?

It’s a story. There are lots of films based on comics, like Ghost World and Watchmen, things like that. So it doesn’t seem so extraordinary. I don’t think so.

Were you involved with the adaptation process or did you take a backseat on that?

I took a backseat, but I advised on things that I knew about. The scriptwriter would ring up and ask me questions. And also I know things about goats mating and cows, because I’m really a country girl. But the goats mating got cut, which was a real shame.

Structurally, you had to make the comic work as a serial. Obviously that doesn’t stand anymore. How does that change things in the adaptation?

Well I had to change the structure of the serial when it became a book because the serial was a week apart so you had to keep nudging the readers along with the plot. When it became a book it became a continuous narrative so there was some very boring and fiddly tweaking and I had just enough time to change pictures that I really hated that I’d drawn in a tremendous hurry.

Obviously the film is going to introduce the strip to a much wider audience. Any chance you’ll pick it up again?

Tamara Drewe? I don’t know, what would she do?

What are you working on next?

I’m writing a serial. It could even have Tamara in it as a cameo appearance. Perhaps she’ll become a man or something!

The nose job was one thing; I think that would be a bit far! They’ve made the nose job much more obvious in the film, what are your thoughts on that?

I think they had to spell it out. I think I drew one picture with her old hooter. But I think they had a nose motif in the film, there are several punches to the nose.

After blagging some unwanted tickets from The Mirror’s 3AM reporter, I entered the premiere proper…

Tamara Drewe Review

Tamara Drewe concerns the titular Tamara (Arterton), who returns to the sleepy country village of her youth to sell her recently deceased mother’s home. She encounters a number of old acquaintances, such as best-selling author and serial love rat Nicholas Hardiment (Allam), his beleaguered wife Beth (Greig), local hunk Andy (Evans) and troublemaking teens Jody and Casey (Barden and Christie). Tamara also embarks on a romantic relationship with petulant rock star Ben (Cooper), much to Jody and Casey’s jealousy. Romantic entanglements and plenty of fornication ensue and the tangled lives of the villagers take turns for the humorous and, latterly, into darkness.

Despite her character’s monopoly on the film’s title, Arterton stars in what is very much an ensemble piece, In fact, Drewe herself is perhaps the most forgettable character in the film, outshone thoroughly by Greig, Evans, Barden and Christie – the latter two often threaten to steal the film entirely and are the source of much of the much of the film’s humour. That’s not to say Arterton does a bad job – far from it. Building on her impressive performance in The Disappearance of Alice Creed (one of the year’s most underrated films), Arterton is charming as the lead character, but is unfortunately underused.

Tamara Drewe is a very likable and very funny romp that rises above the average British rom-com due to its clever literary and self-referential allusions on authorship and writing and its third act plunge into dark territory. A highly recommended roll in the hay.