Movie-A-Day #388: Leaving Las Vegas

[Bada0Bing]

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Plot Summary

Genres: Drama, Romance
Plot Outline Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic Hollywood screenwriter whom lost everything because of his drinking, arrives in Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There, he meets and forms an uneasy friendship and non-interference pact with prostitute Sera.


Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
One of the most critically acclaimed films of 1995, this wrenchingly sad but extraordinarily moving drama provides an authentic, superbly acted portrait of two people whose lives intersect just as they've reached their lowest depths of despair. Ben (Nicolas Cage, in an Oscar-winning performance) is a former movie executive who's lost his wife and family in a sea of alcoholic self-destruction. He's come to Las Vegas literally to drink himself to death, and that's when he meets Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a prostitute who falls in love with him--and he with her--despite their mutual dead-end existence. They accept each other as they are, with no attempts by one to change the other, and this unconditional love turns Leaving Las Vegas into a somber yet quietly beautiful love story. Earning Oscar nominations for Best Director (Mike Figgis), Best Adapted Screenplay (Figgis, from John O'Brien's novel) and Best Actress (Shue), the film may strike some as relentlessly bleak and glacially paced, but attentive viewers will readily discover the richness of these tragic characters and the exceptional performances that bring them to life. (In a sad echo of his own fiction, novelist John O'Brien committed suicide while this film was in production.) The DVD features uncut, unrated footage that was not included in the film's theatrical release. --Jeff Shannon





I really need to watch this again. I saw it in the theater back in 95 and haven’t seen it since. I remember that the acting was incredible.

Here are a couple of notable trivia items from IMDB:

Nicolas Cage researched his character by binge drinking and visiting many hospitalized career alcoholics. Elisabeth Shue associated with prostitutes and interviewed them on the strip in Las Vegas.

To get ready for his role in Leaving Las Vegas, Nicolas Cage would film himself drunk to study his speech patterns.

 

[abomb]

I've never seen this movie, but really want to.

 

[Mike Olbinski]

It's really good, but depressing and it makes you feel like YOU'RE the one drunk afterwards...or at least, you felt like you were him the whole time...very weird movie.

 

[Pariah]

There was a scene toward the begining in which he's with a hooker (in the kitchen?) and the sound is completely off with the exception of his wedding ring being taken off of his finger gently with her teeth. I thought that was a pretty powerful scene.

...now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not positive that was what happened in the near-soundless scene, but whatever was happening visually was obviously secondary to me, because I remember the audio as being really neat.

 

[mesacardsfan]

Good movie while dealing with serious subject matter

 

[Bada0Bing]

I finally got around to re-watching this one. I had forgotten how good the dialog is.

There was a scene toward the begining in which he's with a hooker (in the kitchen?) and the sound is completely off with the exception of his wedding ring being taken off of his finger gently with her teeth. I thought that was a pretty powerful scene.

...now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not positive that was what happened in the near-soundless scene, but whatever was happening visually was obviously secondary to me, because I remember the audio as being really neat.

I think you're mixing up two different scenes, the hooker taking off the ring was during a montage. I agree though, that was a great scene.

Speaking of scenes:

The "supermarket sweep" with Ben whistling his suicide death note scene was voted Empire magazines eighth greatest drunk scene in movie history (2005).