Review of Leaving Las Vegas (1995) by Anna S — 10 May 2009

Leaving Las Vegas is a harrowing film about a late stage alcoholic who goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. While there he meets a prostitute and they form an unlikely bond offering both of them a short period of redemption from their painful lives.

Nicolas Cage is brilliant in his role as the alcoholic as he portrays what it's like to be a late stage alcoholic with no hope of recovering. The scenes where he is suffering the DT's are very powerful, he is a broken down man until he manages to get a drink where h becomes someone totally different. It's Jekyl and Hyde proportions. Elizabeth Shue is great as the prostitute and the chemistry between the two characters is excellent.

Leaving Las Vegas is not an entertaining or happy film, it's hard to sit through and is depressing throughout. If you are looking for an escapist film this is not it. It had me bored in places because of the overly artsy way it was shot. The soundtrack is brilliant though, all jazz and blues songs that capture the mood perfectly.

It's too hard to sit through for me to give it an a very high rating but it is an good film, other people will like it a lot more than I did.