Lay the Favorite
Short description
Beth Raymer leaves her life as a stripper in Florida and moves to Las Vegas, hoping to work as a cocktail waitress in a casino. When steady work proves hard to find, a customer points her toward Dink Heimowitz, a good-natured professional sports bettor who runs a bookmaking operation. Dink gives her a job taking bets and calling clients, and her natural talent with numbers soon makes her valuable to him. His jealous wife, Tulip, resents Beth's growing role in the business and pushes her out, leaving Beth to try her luck on her own.
The film is based on Beth Raymer's memoir of the same name. Stephen Frears directed it, placing it between Tamara Drewe and Philomena in his filmography. D.V. DeVincentis wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Anthony Bregman and George Furla. Rebecca Hall plays Beth, with Bruce Willis as Dink, Catherine Zeta-Jones as Tulip, Joshua Jackson as Jeremy, Laura Prepon as Holly and Frank Grillo as Frankie. Around forty cast members and just over a hundred crew are credited.
Made for a budget of 26 million dollars, the film returned about 2 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 4.9 from roughly 13,000 votes, and on TMDB a rating of 5.2 from 256 votes. A critics' rating of 3.8 from fifty reviews places it below the audience scores. It runs 94 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- Justin Timberlake was considered for the role of Rosie, but Vince Vaughn ultimately got the part.
- The Weinstein Company acquired the distribution rights for slightly more than $2 million.
- During a basketball game on television in the final minutes of the film, the game time expires and the "NJ" player has two free throws to overtake "LA". When the camera focuses on the player's face, it is noticeable that the clock at the other end of the court shows 6:40 (time remaining in the game).
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