Lay the Favorite

The degree to which Lay the Favorite fizzles out is ultimately nothing short of devastating, as the picture, directed by Stephen Frears, opens with a tremendous amount of promise and features terrific work from stars Rebecca Hall and Bruce Willis – with, in fact, the latter delivering his most relaxed and charismatic performance in years. The movie casts Hall as Beth, a bubbly private dancer who moves to Las Vegas in the hopes of becoming a cocktail waitress – with the character instead accepting a hectic job alongside a neurotic sports gambler (Willis’ Dink). Filmmaker Frears, working from D.V. DeVincentis’ screenplay, kicks off Lay the Favorite with a tremendously entertaining opening stretch centered around Hall’s protagonist and her initial arrival in Vegas, with the complicated yet intriguing nature of Dink’s work certainly perpetuating the movie’s somewhat spellbinding atmosphere. It’s a shame, then, that the film grows progressively less and less compelling as it unfolds, with the narrative’s shift to Beth’s exploits in New York City triggering a meandering, unfocused second half that rarely works. There’s just never a point at which one is able to work up much interest in Beth’s personal exploits, including an on-again-off-again relationship with Joshua Jackson’s Jeremy, and it goes without saying that Frears’ efforts at closing the proceedings with a suspenseful, uplifting finale fall completely flat – which cements Lay the Favorite‘s place as a serious disappointment that could (and should) have been so much better.

** out of ****