Reviews
The Evening Standard
Derek Malcolm
“If it’s not one of Frears’s most notable pieces, it’s a divertissement that’s easy to enjoy, largely because he’s paid sufficient attention to D V DeVincentis’s script and given his actors full rein.”
22/06/2012
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The Scotsman
The Scotsman
“Evidently, fiction is duller than fact because screenwriter DV DeVincentis struggles to construct a screwball comedy from the promising source material, striking an uneven tone that inspires lacklustre performances from the starry cast. ”
21/06/2012
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Time Out
Dave Calhoun
“Frears’s strongest hand is a set of colourful characters played with verve ... But DeVincentis’s script looks to achieve far too much in a short space of time and the early bonhomie and sitcom tone of the goings-on in Dink’s office are soon replaced with frenzied plotting and a rapid chain of events that sink the film’s half-earned warmth and charm. ”
20/06/2012
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Total Film
Kate Stables
“Hobbled by a platonic romance with Dink that gets Beth hired and fired, the film slips awkwardly from likeable if broad comedy into unlikely drama, as her illegal New York operation threatens her with prison and poverty. As the film struggles to infuse wafer-thin characters with pathos, you yearn for the dark lessons learned in The Grifters, or The Queen’s adroit switches from teasing humour to sudden sadness.”
13/06/2012
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The Independent on Sunday
Nicholas Barber
“How this pointless exercise attracted such a classy cast is anyone's guess. Catherine Zeta-Jones and Joshua Jackson have particularly insulting non-roles as Willis's catty wife and Hall's bland boyfriend, but no one fares much better. As desperately as they ham up their performances, they can't alter the fact that this is a gambling caper in which nothing's at stake.
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24/06/2012
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The Observer
Mark Kermode
“An oddly lacklustre and forgettable affair. ”
24/06/2012
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The Sunday Times
Cosmo Landesman
“This is arguably the worst film Stephen Frears has ever made.
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24/06/2012
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Empire Magazine
Angie Errigo
“If you don’t understand how the gambling in Vegas works you still won’t. Characters fast-talk numerical exposition and the ins and outs of odds-making, with little of it registering. A few beers in a US sports bar would make for a richer, more entertaining experience.”
19/06/2012
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The Times
Wendy Ide
“Although she gamely chews gum and lets her bum hang out of her hotpants, there’s no escaping that Hall is way too classy to pass as a girl whose biggest dream is to become a cocktail waitress.”
22/06/2012
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The Financial Times
Nigel Andrews
“Why was Lay the Favorite made? I wish I had been a fly on the wall at the dealmaking. I could have pointed out – in my fly voice – “Excuse me, folks, this is a character comedy with no comedy and no character.” (A fly is never heard; that is the film industry’s tragedy.)”
21/06/2012
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The Guardian
Peter Bradshaw
“Everyone does a very great deal of tiresome shouting and yelling, as if they're auditioning for the Max Bialystock role in The Producers. The gambling just isn't interesting, and there's not much of a love story in compensation.”
21/06/2012
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The Independent
Anthony Quinn
“It's a shocking bore, one of the worst of Frears' substantial career, but the agony is watching Rebecca Hall in her first serious flop.”
22/06/2012
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The Daily Telegraph
Robbie Collin
“The dialogue is shrill, the emotional moments are foghorned with deafening musical cues, and every scene is lit like an advert for orange juice. “As luck would have it, the following story is true,” smirks the opening title card, weakly. Flushes don’t come much more busted than this.”
21/06/2012
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