Lay the Favorite

Lay the Favorite
Directed by	Stephen Frears
Produced by	Randall Emmett George Furla Paul Trijbits
Screenplay by	D.V. DeVincentis
Based on	The memoir of the same name by Beth Raymer
Starring	Bruce Willis Rebecca Hall Catherine Zeta-Jones Joshua Jackson
Cinematography	Michael McDonough
Edited by	Mick Audsley
Production company	Emmett/Furla Films
Distributed by	Cheetah Vision Random House Films The Weinstein Company
Release dates	January 21, 2012 (2012-01-21) (Sundance Film Festival) December 7, 2012 (2012-12-07) (United States)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$20 million
Box office	$1,576,687

Lay the Favorite (promoted as Lay the Favourite in the UK) is a 2012 American comedy film starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joshua Jackson. Based on Beth Raymer's memoir of the same title, the film follows a young, free-spirited woman as she journeys through the legal and illegal world of sports gambling. The film was directed by Stephen Frears.

Plot

Beth is becoming bored with her life in Florida, doing stripteases and lap dances for private customers. Her dad, Jerry, tells her to follow her dream of moving to Las Vegas, where she seeks honest work as a cocktail waitress.

A young woman named Holly, who lives at the same Vegas motel, arranges for Beth to meet Dink Heimowitz, a professional gambler who follows the fast-changing odds on sporting events and employs assistants at Dink, Inc., to lay big-money bets for him. Beth is intrigued and it turns out she has a good mind for numbers, easily grasping Dink's system and becoming his protege. A young journalist, Jeremy, becomes attracted to Beth, but she's hooked on the excitement and income that gambling provides and is not ready to settle for any kind of normal life.

When she begins expressing a more personal interest in her much-older mentor, Dink's sharp-tongued wife, Tulip, lets it be known in no uncertain terms that she wants Beth out of her husband's life. Against his advice, Beth accepts a similar job for a rival gambler, a man called Rosie who runs an illegal operation based in Curaçao. She succeeds there at first, but both Rosie and the job turn out to be extremely dangerous, and several lives depend on the outcome of one last game of basketball.

Cast

• Bruce Willis as Dink Heimowitz
• Rebecca Hall as Beth Raymer
• Catherine Zeta-Jones as Tulip Heimowitz
• Joshua Jackson as Jeremy
• Vince Vaughn as Rosie
• Laura Prepon as Holly
• John Carroll Lynch as Dave Greenberg
• Corbin Bernsen as Jerry Raymer
• Frank Grillo as Franky

Production

Filming began in April 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shooting also took place in New Orleans, and New York City. It was released January 21, 2012.

Reception

The film received negative reviews from critics. It holds a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 47 reviews.

External links

• Lay the Favorite at IMDb
• Lay the Favorite at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lay the Favorite at Box Office Mojo