Leaving Las Vegas

 I’ll tell you, right now… I’m in love with you. But, be that as it may, i am not here to force my twisted soul into your life.

Amongst the Pantheon of Nic Cage performances many stick out. Over the course of the 80s Cage mostly worked in supporting roles, including three films with his uncle Francis Ford Coppola. My favorite of which being Peggy Sue Got Married (1986) a time travel story where Cage plays an amorous high schooler who is unknowingly fighting to regain the affection of his future wife Peggy Sue. However, this role is nothing without Cage as he decides to do an accent that is unlike how any person has ever spoken. Cage’s eccentricity is what lead him become a fully-fledged movie star in the 90s. This decade included Cage’s only Oscar for the Mike Figgis movie Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Ben Sanderson, played by Nic Cage, is a failing screenwriter whose divorce has lead him to the depths of alcoholism. After being fired Sanderson travels to Las Vegas without any purpose besides drinking bourbon. Here he meets Sera, played by Elizabeth Shue, a prostitute with her own issues mainly stemming from her Latvian pimp, Yuri. Sera and Ben fall for each other over a seemingly innate understanding of each other. Ben moves in with Sera under one condition being that she never asks him to stop drinking.

The characterization of Ben is very stark as one thing rules over his life, his addiction to alcohol. The film opens with Ben at the liquor store buying an exorbitant amount of alcohol. We as viewers never get to see Ben pre-addiction. He does not remember it well nor does he care to bring it up to anybody. Sera on the other hand is significantly more complex. She has this dependency on Yuri who does not seem particularly fond of her. Sera finds solace in taking care of Ben even though she quickly realizes that this love cannot last long. Ben will not change even after Sera asks him to seek help. Ben’s life is essentially over and the only reason he is not dead yet is because he is not done rotting away. Sera still loves Ben because he is the only man that trusts her judgment, and Ben loves Sera because she is the only person that cares for him.

Leaving Las Vegas is a modern riff on the doomed love trope. However this film is especially bleak. It tells the story of a woman with very little light in her life falling for a dying man. Figgis captures something special here placing this gloomy love story in the artificially colorful setting of Las Vegas. Ben and Sera are products of their environment, and show a dark side to American indulgence.