We watch as he asks a friend in a bar for a loan and is told bluntly: "Don't drink it in here. You smell great and you look great. Then he burns all of his possessions, and there is a curling photograph in the fire, which seems to come from a failed marriage.
He moves to Las Vegas with the intention of using his severance to drink himself to death. Cage's performance in these early scenes is an acutely observed record of a man coming to pieces. He shows Ben imploding, rigid in his attempt to maintain control, to smile when he does not feel a smile, to make banter when he wants to scream. He needs a drink. During the movie, Cage will take Ben into the regions of hell.
There will be times when he has the DTs, times when he must pour booze into his throat like an antidote to death, times of nausea, blackouts, cuts and bruises.
There is a scene in a bank when his hands shake so badly he cannot sign a check, and we empathize with the way he tries to function, telling the bank teller whatever he can think of "I've had brain surgery". Yes, sometimes, he feels better, and sometimes we can sense the charm he must have had we sense his boss' affection for him even as he's being fired.
But for Ben these moments are not about pleasure but about the temporary release from pain. Sera is seen in three ways: As Ben sees her, as her pimp and her clients see her, and as she sees herself in close-up monologues during therapy sessions. Her pimp Julian Sands is soon off the scene; it is bold of Figgis to establish him, to show his sadomasochistic control of Sera, and then to make him disappear in an off-screen killing.
We need to know where Sera is coming from, but we don't need to linger there. For Ben, who almost runs her down in a crosswalk, she is literally the last person in his life he will be able to focus on. He loves her with the purity of a love that has no components, except need and gratitude. He doesn't want to have sex with her, doesn't want her for companionship, isn't looking for an "experience. Why does Sera love Ben?
The movie leaves that for us to intuit, and the therapy sessions do not explain her feelings, they only show her trying to discover them. There is an early monologue where she boasts about her skill as a hooker, how she can sense exactly what a client wants and provide it. That is how she wants to see herself. We also see that her pimp cuts her "never on the face" , and we witness a night when she goes into a motel room with four drunken high-school athletes, and this is so unwise that we read it as deliberately self-destructive.
Sera still has her looks, but she once had innocence and hope, and they are gone. When she looks at Ben, she feels sympathy and empathy, but more than that, I think she feels admiration for the purity of his gesture: Having arrived at the end of his road, he accepts his destiny with a certain stoic courage.
Of course, he could be saved. Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are filled with healthy, functioning people who were once living Ben's life. The outdoor scenes feel unrehearsed and real. The movie works as a love story, but really romance is not the point here, any more than sex is. The story is about two wounded, desperate, marginal people, and how they create for each other a measure of grace. One scene after another finds the right note. If there are two unplayable roles in the stock repertory, they are the drunk and the whore with a heart of gold.
Cage and Shue make these cliches into unforgettable people. Cage's drunkenness is inspired in part by a performance he studied, Albert Finney's alcoholic consul in " Under the Volcano. Shue's prostitute is however the crucial role, because Sera is the one with a choice. She sees Ben clearly, and decides to stick with him for the rest of the ride. When he lets her down badly, toward the end of the movie, she goes out and does something that no hooker should do - gets herself into a motel room with a crowd of drunken college boys - and we see how she needed Ben because she desperately needed to do something good for somebody.
He was her redemption, and when it seems he scorns her gift, she punishes herself. That such a film gets made is a miracle: One can see how this material could have been softened and compromised, and that would have been wrong. It is a pure, grand gesture. That he is an alcoholic and she works the streets are simply the turnings they have taken. Beneath their occupations are their souls. And because Ben essentially has given up on his, the film becomes Sera's story, about how even in the face of certain defeat we can, at least, insist on loving, and trying.
Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from until his death in In , he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Rated R for strong sexuality and language, violence and pervasive alcohol abuse.
Valeria Golino as Terri. Richard Lewis as Peter. Elisabeth Shue as Sera. Julian Sands as Yuri. Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson. Reviews Leaving Las Vegas. Roger Ebert November 10, Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage. Super Reviewer. Rate this movie Oof, that was Rotten.
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View All Photos Movie Info. When Ben meets the beautiful prostitute Sera Elisabeth Shue , they strike up an unconventional relationship -- one where she can't ask him to curb his drinking, and he can't fault her for her job. Though they offer each other support, Ben's self-destruction threatens to eclipse their bond.
Mike Figgis. John O'Brien , Mike Figgis. Aug 1, Nicolas Cage Ben Sanderson. Elisabeth Shue Sera. Julian Sands Yuri. Richard Lewis Peter. Valeria Golino Terri. Graham Beckel L. Lee Ermey Conventioneer. Laurie Metcalf Landlady. David Brisbin Landlord. Xander Berkeley Cynical Cabbie. Lou Rawls Concerned Cabbie. Mike Figgis Director. John O'Brien Writer. Mike Figgis Writer. Stuart Regen Executive Producer. Paige Simpson Executive Producer.
Annie Stewart Producer. Mike Figgis Original Music. Anthony Marinelli Original Music. Declan Quinn Cinematographer. Carrie Frazier Casting.
Waldemar Kalinowski Production Design.
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