British director Stephen Frears is one of the most eclectic if not dependable filmmakers out there, whether he's exploring 18th-century French sexual mores in "Dangerous Liasons," Chicago record store nerds in "High Fidelity," or the Queen of England in…"The Queen."
Now he's turned his attentions to the high-stakes world of sports gambling as seen through the eyes of a bubbly young minx named Beth Raymer in the new trailer for "Lay the Favorite."
Raymer may seem almost cartoonishly free-spirited as played by Rebecca Hall, but the real-life Beth actually lived the hustler's life as bookie in Las Vegas under the thumb of a shifty operator named Dink (Bruce Willis), which she chronicled in her memoir of the same name with colorful candor.
So far reaction to the film out of Cannes has been mixed, especially in regards to Hall's seemingly out-of-whack portrayal, but if you watch footage of the real Raymer it would seem she's actually doing a dead-on impression. With a cast that also includes Joshua Jackson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vince Vaughn, and the ever-awesome Frank Grillo, we're gonna hedge our bets that "Lay the Favorite" could be, as Hall says in the trailer, "a really good time."
