Leaving Las Vegas | Kim Adams, Graham Beckel

Leaving Las Vegas | Kim Adams, Graham Beckel | So stark, it might cause liver damage

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Leaving Las Vegas

	Leaving Las Vegas Kim Adams, Graham Beckel MGM (Video & DVD), 1996 average customer review:based on 162 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

"The Hole You're In."

Leaving Las Vegas is a dark, depressing, haunting film that stays in your thoughts until it hurts to think. Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue are extraordinary in Leaving Las Vegas. Cage received an Oscar and Shue got a much-derserved nomination for best actress. I have always admired and liked Shue, she is a real and talented actress, she is good in every role even if it is a crummy movie. Cage's performance just blew me away, I knew he could act in Peggy Sue got Married but this is best and most appreciated role. They have amazing chemistry, they are electrfying together. Director Mike Figgis did a wonderful job, the opening credits and the musical score are fantastic. Leaving Las Vegas can be hard to watch but this is real and important film. One of my favorite dramas of all-time. You have to see this one.

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So stark, it might cause liver damage

Few movies will leave you with a deeper sense of gloom than this one. "Leaving Las Vegas" does not try to reinvent the addiction movie, it just provides a fresh slant to a very old problem. There are no attempts to coat alcohlism with a romantic sheen or to romanticize it. Addiction needs no Hollywood script writers to provide drama, the affliction comes replete with it by nature.
The success of this story may lie in its simplicity. Nicholas Cage plays a man who has seen the end of his rope slip through his fingers. His decision to drink his way to a swift oblivion is strangely understandable, though grim to watch. Though it is a little difficult to accept Elisabeth Shue as a seasoned hooker, Cage nails the role of a deadend drunk driving to his doom without a flicker of brake lights.
"Leaving Las Vegas" should be placed high on the list of the greatest booze movies of all time, joining "The Lost Weekend" and "The Days of Wine and Roses" as the kind of stark realism that might leave you with a hangover.

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Two outstanding performances in one heartbreaking story.

Leaving Las Vegas is about the connection of two people concidered outcasts by society: Ben, an exteme drunk man, and Sera, a lonely hooker. Played by Nicolas Cage and Elizebeth Shue respectively, their characters are always authentic and are often rounded with heartwrenching emotion. I think, in fact, one can make a good case that there hasn't been a movie with as great a male and female combo lead performances since. Cage won the Oscar for it, and I think so should have Shue. We see Ben between outright drunkeness and his semi-drunkeness where he expreses his love and care for Sera the only way he can. We see Sera care for Ben and worry about him, and trully love him despite his erratic behavior and perhaps also because of it. There are sequences between the two so good that I dare not begin to describe them.

This film is more or less a remake of the classic Midnight Cowboy, with the added romantic edge. Some call this film really depressing. While it isn't a happy film, it's really not one that's much of a downer either. There are hard scenes to take, but there are also great uplifting scenes, and nothing that happens in the end is really all that shocking. The movie is not flawless. Las Vegas isn't perfectly depicted, and there are a few too many outside characters that try to add to the shame of Ben and Sera. This is just a great film of connection, love, and understanding, and everything inbetween.

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One of the Best Movies Ever

After seeing the Mike Figgis film "The Loss of Sexual Innocence" which was an extraordinary, low-key film that was oddly beautiful; I had to see this movie. It intrigued me further when I read that Roger Ebert called it
"The Best Film of the Year" and both Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue scored Oscar nomination, with Cage winning for Best Actor. Well, like the film I mentioned above; here is a rather low-key film that is oddly beautiful and affecting. While the script and direction are great, the fuel that feeds the fire is the performances of Cage and Shue. The movie stars Cage as Ben Sanderson, a movie executive who has hit rock bottom. His wife and child have left him or have died, we are never told which and it's hinted at about both. Ben is an alcoholic, but that word is really too small to truly explain what Ben is. Ben says at one point (I'm paraphrasing) that he has enough money to buy $300 worth of alcohol, each day. In the opening scene we watch Ben fill a shopping cart with more alcohol then it seems possible for a human to consume. Due to the alcoholism, Ben is fired and decides to move to Las Vegas with the goal of drinking himself to death. He gets a hefty severance check, sells his watch and car, and estimates it will take him four weeks to do the deed. But, then Ben meets a hooker named Sera (Shue) and invites her to stay with him for $500 dollars. They don't have sex, but talk...
Something happens though, both of them fall in love. Of course, Sera has an abusive pimp (Julian Sands) to deal with; but he's quickly out of the picture.
Sera and Ben, despite the odds, manage to carry on a relationship. They both understand each other and need each other. A great line in the movie is when Ben tells Sera "You're like an antidote that mixes with the liquor and keeps me in balance" which pretty much sums up the film and their relationship. Even though it was nominated for 4 Academy Awards and topped Roger Ebert's Top 10 List, this movie is still pretty underrated. It's not given even half the credit it deserves. This is one of the best, most poignant, films I've ever seen. Nicolas Cage has never deserved an Oscar more, Elisabeth Shue got robbed of her Oscar (Susan Sarandon was great in "Dead Man Walking"
OK? But not quite as good as Shue). In fact, the only movies I've seen Elisabeth Shue in were "The Karate Kid" and "Hollow Man". Here, her true acting skills are shown off. She needs to revamp her career and start doing some more movies, this woman deserves an Oscar. Some of the scenes are difficult to watch, especially the ones involving Sera and her clients and I seriously do not believe that anyone could consume that much alcohol; this is a great movie and no one should shy away from seeing it.

GRADE: A

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Sad story but good

Very good movie. Nicholas Cage plays a drunk who cant get his life together. He meets Elizabeth Shue who is a prostitute and for a short time they have a relationship. They start off as friends and she really wants to help him. A lot of sad things happen throughout the movie and there is a gang rape scene that was horrible to watch. The ending is extremely sad. I liked this movie a lot because it is real and this happens to millions of people everywhere. It makes you feel good about your life .. trust me.

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