Title: Lay The Favorite

Cast: Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Laura Prepon, Joshua Jackson and Vince Vaughn

Finding what you are good at is not always an easy thing. Sometimes people spend most of their lives drifting from place to place just to get a chance to try something they might be good at. But what happens when what you are good at is considered a crime in 49 states, but in one magical state, it’s a bonafide business. I’m talking about Nevada here. Once again, Stephen Frears explores notions of actions, choices and consequences. This time around he delivers a film that is heavy on a thematic level but is quite dense on the narrative side. In “Lay The Favorite,” he tackles these notions with a collective of gamblers and drifters in Las Vegas.

The film follows Beth Raymer (Rebecca Hall), an aimless woman who leaps from job to job hoping to keep her head above water, but due to a string of occupational mishaps, she decides to move to Las Vegas to “start over again.” Once in Las Vegas, she gets a job running money and numbers for a professional gambler, Dink Heimowitz (Bruce Willis), while he teaches her the business and keeping her away from his jealous wife, Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

The film feels really disjointed and tonally off. Instead of playing this material like a comedy, which I feel was the right direction, Frears decides to play it dramatically. This is a decision I question as it really doesn’t serve the overall themes of the movie. It plays too heavy instead of light, which makes the comical elements misplaced and the dramatic elements laughable. I wouldn’t go as far to say, “Lay The Favorite” is a complete mess of movie, but it does have its share of problems.

“Lay The Favorite” feels like two movies, almost two short sequel short films. The running time is 100 minutes but it feels like two and a half hours because of its disjointed nature. The second half of the film involving Beth moving to New York City after she meets and has a love affair with a tourist named Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) and decides to go back with him. Once there, she is penniless and is forced to find a job, but when the opportunity to work for another professional gambler named Rosie (Vince Vaughn), Beth quickly seizes it. The only problem is this job is in the state of New York, where gambling is illegal.

But what is consistent with “Lay The Favorite” are the themes of choices and consequences. The film makes a specific point to say that we all have choices in our lives and no matter what the outcome may be. we have to be responsible for them. These are themes Stephen Frears loves to examine in his movies. Whether it be the moral choices in his 2010 film, “Tamara Drewe” or the different scenarios in his 2000 film, “High Fidelity,” his characters have to pay the price of their choices, no matter how good or bad. As it worked in “Tamara Drewe,” it does not work in “Lay The Favorite,” as it appears it feels muddled because of the paper thin narrative and construction.

Technical: B-

Overall: C

by @Rudie_Obias