VividSimon Simply Perfect

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

big_O_Other This is a wonderful film, full of exuberance and with the kind of fast pace that is seldom seen outside of an Elroy Leonard movie. Rebecca Hall, who was so outstanding in Vicky Cristina Barcelona and in Parade's End is a Brit who is exceptionally versatile. She plays Beth in this film, based on the real Beth's memoir, and she played every minute perfectly. Willis was terrific and so were Zeta Jones and Joshua Jackson. Vince Vaughan plays a bookie who prefigures Donald Trump's conman patter.This film is not to be missed.I am surprised so many disliked the film. I suspect that some have an antipathy to gambling per se.

Floated2 Lay the Favorite stars Rebecca Hall as an ex-stripper and Bruce Willis as an ageing Las Vegas bookie. But nothing comes good in the script. It is as flat and the writing is noticeable. We can now see why the film was not shown wide in America. The affection between Beth and Dink feels a lot more genuine, with Willis delivering a finely tuned performance. Hall bounces off him with comically goggle-eyed expressions but she comes across more clumsy than needed. This film is listed as a comedy and drama but it really is neither funny, nor it is as dramatic as one should be for a sports betting film. It is also utterly predictable, specifically its ending.

rowmorg I was dumbfounded when I read that Rebecca Hall was the daughter of Sir Peter Hall, and his former American wife. She carries this movie brilliantly, wearing tight, tiny shorts throughout. Her enthusiasm is infectious and her affection for Dink (Bruce Willis) utterly credible. The whole gambling scenario is educative and astonishing, and Rebecca's career in it completely credible. I'd do gambling if I had half a million to start with: reckon I could double it before long. Particularly I'd hire women like Rebecca Hall to participate in my operation. I'd make sure they all wore short-shorts the way she does. And they'd all have to have long slim legs like hers. All hail to Rebecca Hall for pulling off this great picture with such brio and style. See this movie next!

Ed-Shullivan Lay the Favorite ends on a happy note, but as statistics prove over and over again there are more broke and desolate people as a result of addictive gambling than there are happy winners. I enjoyed the solid acting in Lay the Favorite, and there was a Disney like theme involved, but some of the movie content is for an adult only audience. The movie revolves around a young ambitious girl named Beth (played by Rebecca Hall), who is trying to find a job that will fulfill her as a person and that excites her. Making house calls with her boom box and stripping for strange men just does not fill that void for Rebecca so she moves out to Las Vegas to become a cocktail waitress. Through a few chance meetings she ends up working for a private bookmaker who bets only on himself and whose name is Dink Heimowitz (played by Bruce Willis). Dink is assisted by two of his cronies and a few female runners who lay his bets off for him with the Vegas bookmakers. Dink decides to hire Beth as one of his bet runners because she is young, bright, good with numbers, and initially brings Dink some good luck. Dink has a beautiful wife (played by Catherine Zeta-Jones) who does not appreciate the young bet runners that Dink prefers to hire and she lets Dink and the girls know to stay clear of her man. One of the other big gamblers who aspires to run his own bookmaking ring is a guy named Rosie (played by Vince Vaughn). Dink will deal with Rosie but he doesn't trust him because he believes all gamblers are only looking out for themselves.I did enjoy the movie, but I felt it provides an unrealistic view of the life of the heavy bettor. Lay the Favorite portrays Dink and Rosie as two bookies who always seem to come out on top, and have no worries in the world. Although this is a comedy so it is not to be taken seriously I have a soft spot for gamblers as I have seen too many fall in to despair and a life long rut of quiet losses and sudden hibernation until they come in to a bit of money again so they can get back on the cycle of gambling for another run. Beth eventually leaves Dink's employment and she also leaves her down to earth boyfriend Jeremy from New York (played by Joshua Jackson) and goes to work for Rosie on a sunny island. Beth quickly learns that Rosie is not a very nice man and that Rosie is who Dink said he was. Beth realizes that she needs to get back to New York and help her boyfriend Jeremy out of any potential criminal charges related to the gambling book that she asked Jeremy to oversee while she worked with Rosie on the islands.The movie ends with a lot of lives having to rely on the outcome of a basketball game. This is by no means a Disney movie but it may as well have been since the movie's ending had everyone involved in a love fest. Heavy gambling as outlined in Lay the Favorite should not be portrayed with characters as nice and clean as in this movie feature, because this is not reality. Gambling has negatively affected too many people's lives and their extended families lives as well. There is a good Disney message with the underdogs attaining victory in this movie but keep it real folks, gambling is an addiction and an illness which calls out for a cure, not a romantic comedy.