From director Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight,” “Thirteen”) comes the fantasy thriller “Red Riding Hood.”
For decades, the people of the village of Daggerhorn have maintained an uneasy truce with the werewolf, who prowls at every full moon, by offering the beast a monthly animal sacrifice to quench its appetite. But under a blood red moon, the wolf changes the stakes by taking the life of one of their own. The victim is the older sister of Valerie (Seyfried), a beautiful, young woman, who has just found out that her parents (Burke and Madsen) have arranged for her to marry Henry (Irons), the scion of the town’s wealthiest family. But Valerie wants only Peter (Fernandez), the poor woodcutter she has loved all her life. Unwilling to be parted, the couple was planning to run away together, but, in a horrifying instant, the wolf changes everything.
Casting: Amanda Seyfried, Billy Burke, Shiloh Fernandez
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Beth Raymer is a girl with a big heart who leaves her dancing job at a Florida strip club to become a Las Vegas cocktail waitress. Not exactly an ideal career choice, but her borderline-ditzy personality doesn’t give her many options. In walks Dink, a professional sports bettor who sees through her bubbly exterior and offers her a job placing wagers all over town to gain an advantage over the casinos. Her surprisingly impeccable mind for numbers soon cements her status as Dink’s good-luck charm, until his gorgeous-but-frigid wife, Tulip, starts to get jealous. Faced with no other choice but to fire Beth, Dink’s luck runs out when she heads to New York to work for a smarmy bookie, a turn of events that lands her squarely on the wrong side of the law.
With LAY THE FAVORITE, an acclaimed director Stephen Frears nimbly displays his penchant for interweaving comedy and drama to create a thoroughly satisfying tale of improbable friendship found in the unlikeliest of places.