Leaving Las Vegas . Tucson Weekly . 02-08-96

Leaving Las Vegas

DIRECTED BY: Mike Figgis

REVIEWED: 02-08-96

A moving, melancholy portrait of a desperate alcoholic making one last grab for love and redemption in the city of neon. Nicolas Cage plays Ben, a total loser who has lost his family, job and self-respect. He goes to Las Vegas in an effort to escape everything, basically, and there he meets Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a heart-of-gold hooker who takes him in and accepts him just the way he is (sort of). There's no moralizing about the evils of drink here, or romanticizing either--it's just relentless scenes of Nicolas Cage quaffing liquor like water and spreading some kind of bottomless sadness all over the screen. Though Leaving Las Vegas is very sad, it never panders and it never manipulates the audience. Instead, it treats its grim subject matter with intelligence and restraint.

--Stacey Richter

Full Length Reviews
Leaving Las Vegas

Other Films by Mike Figgis
Loss of Sexual Innocence
One Night Stand

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All Over Me
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Never Met Picasso

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