Retro-View
Leaving Las-Vegas
AJITPAUL MANGAT
Mike Figgis’ Leaving Las Vegas (1995) tells the story of Ben and Sera. Ben (Nicolas Cage) is a man whose life has fallen apart. He was once, the audience infers, a successful Hollywood agent with a loving family. He is now alone, constantly drinking and jobless. Something happened but is not clear what. Ben even wonders aloud at one point. “I don’t know if my wife left me because of my drinking or I started drinking ‘cause my wife left me.” Desultory, Ben decides to drink himself to death, so he leaves Los Angeles for Las Vegas, a city where few would notice his self-destructive behaviour.
Sera (Elisabeth Shue), like Ben, once left Los Angeles for Las Vegas, a far more lucrative locale for someone in the sex business. Sera is a prostitute. She does not enjoy her work but is good at it; she can sense what clients want and give it to them. This feeling is necessary for it is likely the only sensation that gives her life any meaning. That is until she meets Ben. Sera notices Ben’s behaviour and she takes him in like she would a lost injured puppy, setting the foundation for one of the rarest and most tragic of love stories.
Ben and Sera’s relationship is unusual in that it is never romantic or sexual and not based on the hope of being saved on an emotional catharsis. Rather it centres on a mutual need of unconditional love and acceptance in the face of unavoidable hurt. Their relationship is heartbreaking because the outcome is inevitable. Ben is going to finish, what he came to Las Vegas to do, even though he has fallen in love with Sera (“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”). And no matter how much she loves him, Sera will never change him as Ben makes her promise to never ask him to stop drinking.
The character of Sera is the backbone and emotional centre of the movie as she is the one who has to make the choices and live with the consequences. Why Sera chooses to be with Ben is convoluted and left to interpretation, but that Sera loves Ben is without question, as she continually demonstrates her unconditional love and need for him. This is best illustrated late in the film when Ben wrongs Sera and she feels the need to put herself in harm’s way so the intense emotional and mentalanguish she feels can manifest itself in a more tolerable physical form. So when Sera concludes, “We both realized that we didn’t have that much time. I accepted him as he was and didn’t expect him to change. He needed me. I loved him . . . I really loved him,” the audience empathizes and weeps with her.
The heart of the film lies in the brilliant performances of Cage and Shue who construct characters that are realistic, allowing the audience to feel for them and at times identify with their morose lives. Cage’s performance is so brilliant because he is able to make Ben a dynamic, multi-layered character. He allows the audience, and more importantly Sera, to see what remains of Ben’s charm, which has not completely dissipated with the drinking. Conversely, he also illustrates brutally the depressing depths to which alcoholism can take a person. Shue, playing an innately clichéd role, a prostitute with a heart of gold, gives Sera the right blend of jauntiness and tenderness, creating a realistic portrayal. A role like Sera takes an actress to her limits, emotionally, physically and mentally, and Shue, to her credit, never falters, playing the role with fearlessness.
One of the finest and most memorable aspects of Leaving Las Vegas is the soundtrack. The score, composed by Figgis who also wrote and directed the movie, is a haunting, evocative jazz composition, which creates an ominous mood, complementing the film’s narrative perfectly. Another exceptional part of the soundtrack is the innovative use of pop songs, which Figgis ingeniously repeats throughout the film causing the individual songs to become an almost internal narrative of the characters. Few films in recent memory have been as effectively tied to music as Leaving Las Vegas and the ambience created is very affecting.
Leaving Las Vegas never panders to any contrived Hollywood love story clichés. The film’s atypical love story is not upbeat and inspirational but sad and, at times, depressing. This makes the film a difficult viewing. Nevertheless, the tortuous journey is well worth the effort as the skilful acting and craftsmanship make the film an enthralling and unforgettable experience that lingers with the viewer well past the film’s demoralizing denouement.
