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Genres:
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Drama /
Romance
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Release:
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Director:
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Mike Figgis
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Actors:
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Carey Lowell,
Thomas Kopache,
Richard Lewis,
Albert Henderson,
Kim Adams,
Stuart Regen,
Shashi Bhatia,
Anne Lange,
Nicolas Cage,
Elisabeth Shue,
Julian Sands,
Steven Weber,
Emily Procter,
Valeria Golino,
Graham Beckel
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Duration:
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111 min.
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Rating:
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(7.6/10)107.5
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Plot Summary:
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With LEAVING LAS VEGAS, headman Mike Figgis spun critical gold out of what would appear to be a maudlin and hackneyed surmise--a down-and-out bibber meets a hooker with a determination of gold. The reason for the film's happy result lies partly in its option to moralize, but mostly it is the strong performances of Nicholas Cage and Elisabeth Shue that make the allegation believable and moving. Ben Sanderson (Cage) is a Hollywood screenwriter who has become an serious. After being fired, he takes his severance pay to Las Vegas, where he plans to glass himself to death. There he meets Sera (Shue... ), a streetwise prostitute who responds both to Ben's snare antics and to his absolute gentleness. What Sera needs most is to be needed, and Ben needs her a grouping. Figgis uses his unimpaired bag of tricks--Sera talks to the camera, the exteriors are shot in grainy 16mm--but finally it is the extraordinarily-conceived relationship between these two wounded people that drew the yowl reviews. The was based on a novel by John O'Brien.
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Tags:
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Leaving Las Vegas
Thoughtful weepie about a man opting to drink himself to death in Las Vegas from Mike Figgis. Stars Nicolas Cage - who won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe - and Elizabeth Shue
Cage went from jobbing offbeat actor to one of the most bankable stars around and won an Oscar (in one of the most predictable Best Actor battles in years) with his strong portrayal of a man on a quest to drink himself to death over one wild, alcohol-fuelled weekend in the gambling mecca. Shue also landed a nomination as Sera, the no-nonsense hooker with whom he forms a fragile alliance during his two-day binge.
Figgis' film, one of the few to show the sleazy flip-side of the glossy city of Las Vega, offers an unblinking portrayal of alcoholism. This may be depressing but it's frank ...
Bitter-sweet beautiful film
This is a brilliant film, which defies the standard Hollywood happy ending formula which determines so many movies.
The story follows Ben's (Nicholas Cage) downward spiral from top Hollywood writer to jobless, wifeless, directionless drunk who plans to drink his way to death without anyone's intervention, including the prostitute whom he falls in love with. Nicholas Cage is superb in the role, the type of which he does best (why oh why did he sell out to Hollywood?!) and Elizabeth Shue is also outstanding as his 'lover'.
The way in which neither of them can give up (alcohol and prostitution respectively) what each of them would like the other to give up is very endearing. Perhaps if they both had quit (a possibility outside of Ben's comprehension), a true ...
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