called Rosie. Gambling is illegal in New York and Dink worries about Beth. Rosie then sets up a legal operation based in Curaçao and Beth goes down to help run the betting. Rosie and his men are more interested in drugs and hookers and Beth wants out. A New York gambler, Dave Greenberg, is in debt for sixty-thousand dollars and may be working for the Feds. Dink and his wife Tulip come to New York to help out Beth and Jeremy. They strong arm Greenberg and he gives them a hot tip on a New Jersey basketball team. The team wins in the last second by one point and everyone clears their gambling debts. The movie is a true story based on Beth Raymer's memoir who in real life goes to college and becomes a writer. Cast Bruce Willis as Dink Heimowitz Rebecca Hall as Beth Raymer Catherine Zeta-Jones as Tulip Heimowitz Joshua Jackson as Jeremy Vince Vaughn as Rosie Laura Prepon as Holly John Carroll Lynch as Dave Greenberg Corbin Bernsen as Jerry Raymer Frank Grillo as Franky Production Random House Films took the gambling memoir to Likely Story and Emmett/Furla Films to adapt the film. Filming began in April 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shooting also took place in New Orleans, and New York City. The Weinstein Company purchased distribution rights at Sundance Film Festival for a fall 2012 release. Wild Bunch was the film's international sales company. Reception Lay the Favorite received negative reviews from critics. It holds an approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus reads: "A clumsy misstep for director Stephen Frears, Lay the Favorite puts all its chips on endearing quirk only to go bust." On Metacritic, the film has an average score of 38 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". The A.V. Clubs Nathan Rabin gave the film an overall "B−" grade, praising Willis for giving "a nicely shaded character actor turn" and Hall for emitting "irrepressible energy" in her role, writing that: "It's a decidedly soft-boiled tale populated by some of the nicest degenerate gamblers you'd ever want to meet." Jeremy Kay of The Guardian praised Hall for delivering "a fabulously ditzy turn that should gain her wider recognition in the US as a leading lady." He added that: "While this is a lesser work in