Leaving Las Vegas
Composite Score: 87.07
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands, Richard Lewis, Steven Weber, Graham Beckel, Carey Lowell, Thomas Kopache, and French Stewart
Director: Mike Figgis
Writer: Mike Figgis
Genres: Drama, Romance
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexuality and language, violence, and pervasive alcohol use
Box Office: $32.03 million worldwide
My take on Watching This Film:
Leaving Las Vegas is Mike Figgis’s film adaptation of John O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name about an alcoholic who comes to Vegas to drink himself to death while throwing in with a prostitute whose pimp is in financial trouble. Nicolas Cage stars as Ben Sanderson, the aforementioned alcoholic and failed screenwriter, alongside Elisabeth Shue as Sera, the prostitute who falls in love(?) with him. It’s a simple and profound film about vice and despair that features two powerhouse performances from Cage and Shue, both of whom earned Oscar nominations for their turns in the film, Cage winning for his. At the same time, it is an incredibly heavy film that you probably won’t want to revisit time and again, no matter how much you love Nic Cage. His performance as Ben is on another level entirely, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch, as he is a man trapped in a seemingly endless downward spiral of failure and alcoholism whose hope lies not in salvation but in acceptance from Shue’s Sera. The truths about relationships and people presented in the film – that we crave acceptance more than redemption – are weighty and might not sit perfectly with everyone, which could be another turn-off for certain audiences. At the same time, if you want to claim to have seen the best of the best of acting in history and haven’t seen this film, I don’t know if you can really be speaking truly, as Cage delivers one of the most demoralizing and desperate performances that I’ve ever seen, and even Elisabeth Shue gives this complex and fascinating turn as Sera, rarely allowing herself to be shown up in any scene. It’s a film carried by its performances, but they’re certainly strong enough to do so, earning it a place among the greats. You just might not want to watch the film ever again once you have seen it because of how profoundly bleak its narrative and themes are. If you do want to check it out, though, you can currently find it streaming on Max.
