Leaving Las Vegas

with Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Julian Sands
Directed by Mike Figgis
(Castle Rock)
by Reggie Kray

Nicolas Cage is one of the finest actors working today. Over the course of his 15-year career, he has consistently proven himself, working hard and paying his dues (even if he does call Coppola “Uncle”). Capping it all is his performance in Leaving Las Vegas, which garnered him Best Actor kudos at the Golden Globe awards, a feat I only hope he can repeat at Oscar time.

In this film, Cage plays Ben, a screenwriter en route, via Jack Daniels, to Vegas. He is there for one reason: To drink himself to death. Enter Elisabeth Shue as Sera, a hooker with a heart who, while escaping the clutches of her abusive pimp (played by the versatile Julian Sands), falls for Ben and tries to put a stop to his kamikaze mission. This is a love story, laced with and swimming in booze, and unflinching in its knowledge of what it does to the dungeons of a man’s soul. Cage is amazing, displaying the same high intensity that Elizabeth Taylor did with her alcoholic character in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Will Sera help Ben beat the battle of the bottle? Take a trip to …Las Vegas and find out for yourself.

Leaving Las Vegas has snagged Best Picture nods from the New York, LA and Boston critics circles. In March, I would like to see this film get its due from the Academy. It is astonishing and nerve-wracking, containing all the elements of a love story and a tragedy, because, from the inside of a bottle, most things are.