Thursday, March 7, 2013

LAY THE FAVORITE: CINDERELLA STORY VEGAS STYLE

Beth (Rebecca Hall) is a dreamer. Moving from her Southern roots to Vegas with dreams of stepping up in life and becoming a cocktail waitress (yes that is her initial ambition) she moves into a low rent motel where she makes friends who give her another option. Rather than be manhandled all day they send her to Dink (Bruce Willis), a professional gambler who bets on any and everything.

Dink Inc. is a business where the odds are always manipulated by the placing of bets in legal form. Not only does this pay Dink well but it helps take care of those who are working for him as well. With a head for numbers, Beth is a natural and soon Dink Inc. is doing well and Beth with it. Now all she has to do is get past Tulip (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Tulip is Dink's wife and to say she is jealous is an understatement. Then again there have been times when her jealousy was well founded. As Beth begins to fall for Dink and attempt to sway him, Tulip steps in and puts an end to it. Beth loses her job, meets a young man named Jeremy (Joshua Jackson) and its love at first sight. With no reason to stay she plans on going back to New York with Jeremy when he leaves. But Dink is in a slump of bad luck and he thinks Beth was his good luck charm so he convinces her to come back.

Beth's return doesn't increase Dink's luck any more than the rising sun. Within days he tosses her and his whole team out again. Unwilling to wait around another day, Beth heads to New York and Jeremy. Once there she contacts Rosie (Vince Vaughan), a low life illegal bookie she met through Dink, and helps him run his business. Plans are to set up in the Caribbean where gambling is legal with Beth running the show. As always, things don't go as planned.

Soon Beth finds herself and Jeremy with the possibility of going to jail on federal gambling charges. Rosie is no help, a self centered low life who could care less who gets hurt, something Dink warned Beth about when she first met Rosie. Back on top with Tulip convinced there was never anything going on with Beth or the chance that it will, Dink and Tulip head to New York in an attempt to save the day.

The movie is directed by Stephen Frears who made THE GRIFTERS, THE QUEEN and DANGEROUS LIASONS. With those titles to his credit, expectations for this film are high. Unfortunately they don't come close to those other films. That's not to say this film isn't interesting or even fun, but don't have high expectations and you might just enjoy it.

The film is well made and looks top of the line in the production values area. For not being hyped as the hottest thing out of Hollywood, Hall turns in a worthwhile performance and makes her naive character quite believable. Zeta-Jones does a great job as well in a role that doesn't require her to exude sex non-stop for once. Best of all is Willis who gets the chance to play a character that doesn't shoot anyone or blow things up. Sometimes people forget what a good actor he actually is.

While this film isn't Oscar material it does offer a nice evening's entertainment. Based on the memoirs of the real Beth, it might even stir up enough interest in her story to sell a few books. If not it will at least encourage a trip to the library. 

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