Lay the Favorite
RADiUS-TWC | Release Date: December 7, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
38
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
9
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
Total FilmKate StablesDec 2, 2012
A classy cast and Frears' light touch can't help this innocent abroad dramedy into the winner's enclosure. More jeopardy, less laboured larking, and it could've romped home. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinDec 5, 2012
At best, Lay The Favorite registers as cartoon sociology, but the film's featherweight charms dissipate whenever it moves away from the world of gambling and devotes time to go-nowhere subplots involving Hall's bland romance with Jackson, or Willis' troubled but fundamentally healthy marriage to Zeta-Jones. Read full review
40
NPRScott TobiasDec 7, 2012
Adapted from a comic thriller by Carl Hiaasen, South Florida's day-glo answer to Elmore Leonard, the film missed the fizzy, beach-friendly fun of Hiaasen's work, and wound up playing the comedy and the suspense at half-speed. It couldn't keep up with its own protagonist. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 6, 2012
Romance and capers exist in Lay the Favorite, they just aren't played well. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichDec 4, 2012
Lay the Favorite is frenzied without being funny. Like Judy Holliday on a particularly manic day, Hall tears from scene to scene with a bubbly effervescence that is technically impressive yet increasingly exhausting. Read full review
40
EmpireAngie ErrigoDec 2, 2012
Particularly disappointing given the names involved, it's only mildly amusing at best, and more often downright tedious. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 2, 2012
Stephen Frears is a supremely accomplished director, but perhaps there was little he could do with this garbled and unsatisfying story about gambling. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 2, 2012
The comedy just isn't that funny and the enterprise never finds an exact tone. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangDec 2, 2012
Rebecca Hall's enjoyably bubbly lead performance lends the picture an occasional frisson of amusement. Read full review
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