Ben, a washed-up Hollywood screenwriter struggling with alcoholism and misery ever since his wife left him, is fired by the film studio. Using their compensation money, he burns all his belongings in his home and heads off to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. He meets prostitute Sera who becomes his girlfriend and allows him to stay at her place. When he has sex with another prostitute, Sera leaves him. She is assaulted by three men in an apartment. Sera finds Ben bedridden in a hotel, who dies from alcohol poisoning.
“Leaving Las Vegas” is a ‘rough’ and arbitrary, but also honest depiction of addiction (in this case, alcoholism), soulmates and fatalism, but in a way also a surprising depiction of a man with a mindset of just giving up on everything with utter calm. The two protagonists—alcoholic Ben and prostitute Sera—carry the entire film, and are played phenomenally by Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, who are so good the viewers forgive the movie’s flaws and omissions on all other fronts. For instance, the whole story is episodic and chaotic, without a clear three act structure; the supporting character of pimp Yuri, who disappears after half an hour, anyway, is unnecessary; some technical problems bother (every slow motion scene is an error since it is “foggy” and clumsy); whereas Mike Figgis just films the movie in a straightforward manner. And yet, the core relationship between Ben and Sera is emotionally satisfying and engaging, even though it is a fairytale in some aspects (the typical cliche of the “prostitute with the heart of gold”). It is never clear why Sera is attracted or fascinated by Ben, her client, to start a relationship with him and allow him to stay at her place. Ben is depicted as using alcohol as a form of escapism from the bleak reality, as the only hedonism he can still rely on—among others, he drinks a bottle even underwater (!) in a swimming pool, while Sera pours bourbon over her breasts to incite him to lick-drink it from them. One gets overall what director Figgis and screenwriter John O'Brien wanted to say—two outcasts somehow managed to find comfort in each other, by signing an informal contract that they will accept each other for all their flaws and imperfections, because they at least have a soul—and thus one could apply this rule to the movie as a whole, as well.
Grade:++
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