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LEAVING LAS VEGAS
Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor of 1995 for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, an, at times, over-the-top, but for the most part, revealing look at the disease of alcoholism, bringing home the isolation and insanity that the disease can cause and also providing a rare look at the pain and suffering that can come from enabling an alcoholic.
This was my second watch of the film, which placed at # 23 on my list of favorite movies about addiction and I'm inclined to think this placement is pretty accurate, though there were many who didn't think so when I posted the list. The film is an insightful look at the disease of alcoholism; however, director and screenwriter Mike Figgis uses the same sledgehammer approach that Robert Zemeckis utilized for Flight, taking this story to the very extremes of where we are introduced to these characters, trying to make us accept unacceptable behavior that we are supposed to forgive because the root of the behavior is a disease.
Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter whose drinking destroyed his career and his marriage, which ended with his wife and daughter leaving him. When Ben gets fired from the studio, instead of taking a serious look at what his life become because of alcohol, he decides to liquidate his assets, move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death, where he meets an intelligent but lonely prostitute named Sera (Elisabeth Shue), who inexplicable finds herself drawn to the man and thinks she has accepted who Ben is and wants to be with him anyway.
Figgis mounts this drama with an unapologetic eye, beginning the story with some really outrageous behavior on Ben's part...a moment where Ben is observed driving down a busy Hollywood street downing a bottle of vodka with the law behind him is almost laughable, but the story settles into a more realistic vein once Ben gets to Vegas and I like that Ben never makes any qualms about why he came to Vegas. When he first meets Sera, he tells her flat out that he came here to drink himself to death, which initially amuses Sera but when she realizes that it's the truth. she actually gifts him with a flask, a symbol of her understanding and the beginning of her enabling Ben that would be instrumental to his downfall. She thinks she understands and accepts Ben for who he is but she really doesn't.
The story then becomes a challenge between Ben and Sera as Ben doesn't want to do anything but drink and Sera discreetly tries to foster an interest in something else, anything else...she suggests that they gamble one night and it ends in an explosive meltdown for Ben that has them being thrown out of the casino. Her suggestion that Ben move in with her eventually has circumstances for her that she calmly accepts. We get an interesting mirror to Ben's predicament as we see Sera try to explain her feelings to a therapist and trying to leave her complicated relationship with her pimp (a brilliant turn by Julian Sands) behind her.
The performances are strictly a matter of taste. I read that before filming began on this movie, Cage and a friend took off for two weeks and drank as "research" and there is some effective scenery chewing here and there, but for me, the secret of playing a good drunk scene is trying to act like you're not drunk and Cage doesn't have a single moment in the film like that. On the other hand, I guess he wouldn't because Ben never tries to conceal his disease from anyone in this movie. Elisabeth Shue was also nominated for Best Actress for her Sera. Shue works very hard to be a convincing prostie-with-a-heart-of-gold, but I just kept picturing Chris in Adventures in Babysitting playing dress up and just couldn't get behind the performance, but the actors and Mike Figgis reveal a passion for this project that puts the ugliness of alcoholism center stage.
Nicolas Cage won the Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor of 1995 for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, an, at times, over-the-top, but for the most part, revealing look at the disease of alcoholism, bringing home the isolation and insanity that the disease can cause and also providing a rare look at the pain and suffering that can come from enabling an alcoholic.
This was my second watch of the film, which placed at # 23 on my list of favorite movies about addiction and I'm inclined to think this placement is pretty accurate, though there were many who didn't think so when I posted the list. The film is an insightful look at the disease of alcoholism; however, director and screenwriter Mike Figgis uses the same sledgehammer approach that Robert Zemeckis utilized for Flight, taking this story to the very extremes of where we are introduced to these characters, trying to make us accept unacceptable behavior that we are supposed to forgive because the root of the behavior is a disease.
Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a Hollywood screenwriter whose drinking destroyed his career and his marriage, which ended with his wife and daughter leaving him. When Ben gets fired from the studio, instead of taking a serious look at what his life become because of alcohol, he decides to liquidate his assets, move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death, where he meets an intelligent but lonely prostitute named Sera (Elisabeth Shue), who inexplicable finds herself drawn to the man and thinks she has accepted who Ben is and wants to be with him anyway.
Figgis mounts this drama with an unapologetic eye, beginning the story with some really outrageous behavior on Ben's part...a moment where Ben is observed driving down a busy Hollywood street downing a bottle of vodka with the law behind him is almost laughable, but the story settles into a more realistic vein once Ben gets to Vegas and I like that Ben never makes any qualms about why he came to Vegas. When he first meets Sera, he tells her flat out that he came here to drink himself to death, which initially amuses Sera but when she realizes that it's the truth. she actually gifts him with a flask, a symbol of her understanding and the beginning of her enabling Ben that would be instrumental to his downfall. She thinks she understands and accepts Ben for who he is but she really doesn't.
The story then becomes a challenge between Ben and Sera as Ben doesn't want to do anything but drink and Sera discreetly tries to foster an interest in something else, anything else...she suggests that they gamble one night and it ends in an explosive meltdown for Ben that has them being thrown out of the casino. Her suggestion that Ben move in with her eventually has circumstances for her that she calmly accepts. We get an interesting mirror to Ben's predicament as we see Sera try to explain her feelings to a therapist and trying to leave her complicated relationship with her pimp (a brilliant turn by Julian Sands) behind her.
The performances are strictly a matter of taste. I read that before filming began on this movie, Cage and a friend took off for two weeks and drank as "research" and there is some effective scenery chewing here and there, but for me, the secret of playing a good drunk scene is trying to act like you're not drunk and Cage doesn't have a single moment in the film like that. On the other hand, I guess he wouldn't because Ben never tries to conceal his disease from anyone in this movie. Elisabeth Shue was also nominated for Best Actress for her Sera. Shue works very hard to be a convincing prostie-with-a-heart-of-gold, but I just kept picturing Chris in Adventures in Babysitting playing dress up and just couldn't get behind the performance, but the actors and Mike Figgis reveal a passion for this project that puts the ugliness of alcoholism center stage.