Okay, so director Stephen Frears and screenwriter D.V. DeVincentis are telling the story of a woman who bounces from one thing or another, unable to find a life or a career that seems to make sense. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating that the film itself similarly finds itself unable to decide what it’s all about. Beth Raymer (Rebecca Hall) looks for something more fulfilling than stripping when she moves to Las Vegas, and lands a gig working for a professional gambler (Bruce Willis)—only to discover that, surprise surprise, emotions can swing fairly radically from up to down in that line of work. Hall’s performance itself is a frustration, obviously intended as the foundation for an arc about finding self-confidence yet so muddled in her sense of what she’s looking for that she simply becomes aggravating. And it’s equally disappointing that the film rarely settles down long enough to really explore its setting in the world of high-stakes sports gamblers, only rarely allowing colorful characters like Vince Vaughn’s supremely confident New York bookie room to move. Occasional bursts of real cleverness—describing New York summer as “like living inside someone’s mouth” may win the festival’s Line of the Year honors—can’t make up for its defining confusion. (Scott Renshaw)
