Summary:
An alcoholic ex-screenwriter moves to Las Vegas to drink himself to death, where he encounters a prostitute with whom he forms a unique relationship.
My Thoughts:
I have always thought of Nic Cage (“Mandy”) as that guy who gives crazy performances and can sometimes, when given the right role, absolutely nail the part. Nic Cage is one of those actors that bring me to movies I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to see primarily because I want to see what he’ll do in a specific role. Cage’s acting style is so versatile, and, at times, bonkers, that you never know which Cage you’ll get in which movie; occasionally you’ll get a phone-in performance (“Season of the Witch”), sometimes you’ll get some absolutely hysterical antics (“Vampire’s Kiss”), and sometimes he’ll dazzle you with his ability to disappear inside of a roll completely (“Adaptation.”). “Leaving Las Vegas” is the film that won Cage his Oscar, and I have to say I doubt I’ve ever really seen him better than he was in this.
“I don’t know if I started drinking cause my wife left me or my wife left me cause I started drinking…”
The plot of “Leaving Las Vegas” is extraordinarily simple: Ben Sanderson (Cage) moves to Las Vegas after he looses everything from his drinking, and his only plan is to keep drinking until he dies. He even figured out how long it will take (he thinks about four weeks), and he has enough money for a couple hundred dollars of booze a day. One night, he almost literally runs into Sera (Elisabeth Shue, “Battle of the Sexes”) and he offers her $500 to come back to his room to have sex with him. Once the two make it there, however, Ben finds he’s too drunk to actually perform, and instead he offers Sera money just to stay the night with him. His sincerity touches Sera, and soon the two form an unlikely bond, the only condition of which is that Ben does not interfere with her work as a prostitute and Sera cannot interfere with Ben’s drinking. As the two become closer, they both find it difficult to keep their promises.
Cage was born to play Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic screenwriter with a seeming heart of gold but also a drive to kill himself with drink. Ben is a shattered individual. By the time we meet him he’s already so far gone that it would probably kill him to try to stop drinking. Cage is known for bringing a certain amount of craziness to the roles he plays, and while the results run the gamut in terms of quality, when it works, it really works. Cage’s craziness works perfectly in this movie. He’s able to flit back and forth between unhinged and ever so slightly hinged. Ben is almost never sober in this film, or if he is, he’s withdrawing heavily, to the point of getting the shakes, sweating profusely, and looking as if he might die. This film does not at all sugarcoat alcoholism, and neither does Ben’s character when he first discusses moving in with Sera. “I’ve kept my drinking under control around you so far,” he says. “But it gets bad.” He keeps his promise. His drinking does get worse. A lot worse.
Elisabeth Shue is absolutely wonderful as Sera. Though both Ben and Sera are the main characters, often it’s through Sera’s eyes that we see events, as Ben is often too inebriated to make coherent sense. Sera is just as broken as Ben. Though she isn’t killing herself slowly through alcohol abuse, she has a very low self-image; she allows men to abuse her and she doesn’t really stand up for herself. She’s convinced herself that the way she is living now is the only way she can survive, which is very much the same way Ben chooses to think of his situation. Both characters are so broken and beaten down that when they finally find each other they cling to each other like survivors of a shipwreck clinging to driftwood. This isn’t so much a love story as it is a survival story set under the harsh neon lights of hedonism.
While it’s the performances that sold this film for me, the direction is actually really great too. Figgis has a way of crafting moods more than anything else. A lot of this film feels like its drifting through scenes. Characters will talk about doing things and suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of doing those things; we’ll be in one place and then, suddenly, we’ll find ourselves somewhere else. I feel like all of this was intentional, to give us the feeling like we’re trapped in a perpetual drunken stupor with Ben; we get fragments, scraps of memory that when strung together make enough sense to make a coherent story, but we also can tell that there are fragments of the story that are missing. The film begins to feel like a sad cinematic poem; only the most important, most meaningful things are shown to us. And as we drift in and out of this stupor, Figgis lets a jazzy soundtrack swell beneath the mumbled dialogue and take over so that the mood and emotion of what’s happening is more important than what actually happens. Towards the end, when the more emotional moments come there are one or two too many music montages for my personal taste, and sometimes it felt like Figgis was really vying to make me cry. Those overly emotional scenes towards the end of the film didn’t work for me nearly was well as some of the other more subtle moments, but for the most part Figgis’ direction was on point.
Verdict:
I can’t say this is a particularly enjoyable watch or a fun one, but it is a very good movie. Both Cage and Shue showcase their abilities as actors, and Figgis dazzles as a director. This is a story about finding hope and love in the most hopeless and loveless of places; there’s beauty in the brokenness, even if that brokenness is hard to behold.
Review Written By: