Leaving Las Vegas
There are countless stories in the history of cinema when it comes to examples of The Oscars getting it WRONG, and this 1995 release is no exception, except maybe that what happened here was them really just getting it half right. That season saw Nicolas Cage (in what was definitely his career peak) nabbing the Best Actor Oscar for his lead role in this film, but the real injustice would come for Elisabeth Shue (his romantic co star in the movie) who had not only matched Cage neck for neck on the regional awards circuit, but had actually given the (much) better performance than he had and maybe even achieved the not so mean feat of pulling off one of the best and most emotionally charged and complex female roles ever, but yet still lost her bid at the Best Actress Oscar perhaps because all of the Oscar hype machine was way too centered on Cage for basically playing little more than a miserable drunk. The first 15 minutes of the film are still a rather harrowing experience as we first meet Cageâs Ben Sanderson and watch how his life completely unravels due to rampant, uncontrolled alcoholism, the kind that makes bartenders feel guilty for even serving him and all of his friends start more and more distancing themselves away from him. Apparently he is a once successful screenwriter under contract to a fairly respectable Hollywood production company, but once he starts turning up in posh, swanky nightclubs completely shitfaced and hitting up his more stable friends for some quick booze money during their power lunches, the word gets around town that he is finished and he loses his job (although he does get a severance check that he describes as being âtoo generousâ). With this last connection to a respectable life now severed, he decides to move out to Las Vegas (either a veritable paradise or an absolute Hell depending on how well you handle things there) and live day to day on what he has left with the full and absolute intention of drinking himself to death once and for all. Once there he meets Shueâs Sera, a hooker who divides her work time between picking up men in casino bars and when that doesnât work out, doing some good old fashioned streetwalking as well. On the outs with her Russian pimp (Julian Sands) whom himself is about to be made to âdisappearâ by his own associates in the Russian mob, she first meets Cage after nearly being run over by him while crossing the street and then later is clumsily propositioned by him, accepting the offer to go back to his place where he tells her his intentions and then something just clicks between them to the point where he moves in with her and agrees to stay with her, but also makes it very clear that none of this will ever deter him from finishing himself off and that she is not to try and stop him or get him help along with her also having to witness the devastating final downward spiral that he will soon have. This of course evokes several metaphorical elements, most notably that of a Greek tragedy, but also in the stated name of the Shue character herself (Sera) which can be translated to mean that she is in fact a seraphim, which is a kind of angelic figure looking after various people on Earth (Cage actually refers to her a number of times as being his âangelâ), tasked with accompanying Cage on his descent into his hellish self destruction on the fleeting hope that the purity of her love for him will somehow redeem him and convince him to change his ways in an effort to save his life (though the fact that she continues to work as a hooker while theyâre together probably does very little to boost his own self esteem and willingness to live). There is also the possibility that Shue has latched onto him in order to gain her own measure of redemption by trying to save his life, but the one thing that she can be commended for is that she at least gave him a CHOICE, a reason to live and a legitimate shot at happiness which when thrown away can now make his own demise pretty much completely his fault (in spite of the devastating emotional consequences that his death will now have on her). Itâs the contrast in performances though that really stuns the viewer, as while Cage (who went on real life drinking binges to prepare himself for this role) is playing a guy who has clearly given up on life within the first five minutes of the movie and spends the rest of it getting more and more incoherent and indifferent about anything thatâs going on, itâs Shue and her stubborn refusal to give up on her life and thinking that saving Cage and giving him all the (real, genuine) love that a prostitute is possibly capable of giving another human being will somehow free her from her own demons is what makes for watching an absolutely incredible performance and even goes so far as making her the real star of the movie for doing everything she can to save the life of somebody that doesnât really deserve it. And therein lies some of the problem mostly in the way that Cageâs acting was so highly touted here. Some might argue that a real life relationship like this would be the classic case of a girl who sells her body while her lazy, worthless boyfriend sits at home and counts the money, but really itâs just a matter that when it dawns on us that the Cage character is not being swayed in the very least by Shue and her caring ways and remains full bore on his way to an alcohol induced death (heâs lucky that he at least doesnât die alone), then just like his old friends, even the viewer starts to distance himself away from caring about this guy either way and instead becomes invested almost completely in Shue and what her ultimate fate will be after all of this is over. That point is hammered home late in the film when Cage crawls off to a hotel by himself to continue drinking and Shue winds up finding herself in a bad situation where she is beaten and gang raped by three college frat boys and then soon finds out as well that she is not wanted anymore in any of her old haunts because she has quite simply been hitting them up one time too many and most businesses (even in Vegas) are not too keen on the idea of having a hooker looking for action being a regular at their places. Thereâs also the conceit of director Mike Figgis employing a number of familiar faces in cameo roles which really only distracts from this being a two character piece (even though Sands as the pimp is third billed but doesnât have that much screen time) and also choosing to go with a jazzy yet repetitive movie score (with several songs by Sting) that again doesnât add anything and comes across as also being distracting as well. Another interesting note is that of the original writer (John OâBrien) from whose book the movie was adapted had actually killed himself only two weeks into filming (maybe he feared it wouldnât be done justice?). But at least among other things the film is a painfully honest look at the destructive nature of alcoholism (something that doesnât get a lot of play in mainstream movies since films about drug addiction seem to be a lot more popular) and it also entitles us to witnessing one of the best and most honest lead actress performances to come along in a very long time that helped get Shue out of the realm of playing the love interest in goofy comedies and onto the A list, at least for that time being (she hasnât been nominated since, nor has Cage). As for Cage, while he did do an amazingly convincing job at playing a drunk (so much so that the typecasting stayed with him for a very long time and no doubt killed public perception about his abilities when he was cast as Superman shortly after which led to that project never actually going into production), it doesnât change the fact that the character comes off as being both worthless and unlikable especially given the second chance at life that Shueâs character clearly presents to him. But most of all, it is definitely a love story, a story of two people with horrible lives who still manage to fall for each other (at least Cage is shown as having kind words of appreciation for Shueâs efforts) and it is absolutely a classic example of a tragic love story, maybe even the best one ever filmed, one where the heartbreak comes from someone loving another so much that they will do everything they can in order to save that person, even at the risk of not only failing, but in having their own heart and soul be made to feel torn out forever as wellâŚ
8/10