Left Field Cinema

During the dawn of the trashbag which is American film for the past 20 years, it takes an English director to make one of the few gems of American film of the 1990’s. Mike Figgis is by no means a hollywood director, though his work are sometimes a miss he has to be given credit for experimenting like giving the four simulatious cameras in 2000’s Timecode. He is also capable of genius like Leaving Las Vegas.

Nicolas Cage gives the performance of a life-time, proving his worth as a talented actor before being relgated Baybrained trash like The Rock and lowest common denominator films like Gone in 60 seconds. Cage plays the role of Ben, an hopeless alcoholic who has hit rock bottem in his life, having lost a good job, his family and his dignity to his dependance on alcohol. Being given a generous severance pay he decides to go on a slow suicide drinking run in Las Vegas. While driving in sin city he nearly runs over a prostitute named Sera, played on on par with Cage by Elizabeth Shue. Despite a poor first impression, Ben offers rather boldly ‘Will you take $500 to fuck me?’ Sera agrees, but is surprised to discover that Ben doesn’t want sex, but for her to stay and talk with him for an hour. From then on a deep friendship developes between Ben and Sera though his alcoholism and her prostitution does create tension and frustration between the two in what’s ultimately a doomed relationship.

For an American film, it is a rarity as there are no explosions, gun shots or cliches. It’s 100% a character film and how our two protagonists develop alone and together. Mike Figgis does an excellent job of keeping the characters believable as well as sympathetic even though they both have habits that would usually be scorned upon. Stereotypes and cliché have no place in this film, the director instead trusting his audience enough to have of an emotional attachment on the merits and flaws of the characters on their own. The performances of both Cage and Shue, Figgis’s faith in the audiences might indeed have been justified.

The film is ultimately a study of misfits and how society either ignores them or takes advantage of them. Ben is not a bad man in the least, he just has a compulsion to drink and rather then reciving love and support, everything important to him has abandoned him, his job and his family. A stripper taking advantage of his inebriation, discreetly steals an expensive ring from him, despite being paid for her services. Sera is also alone, trying hard to maintain her dignity. A pragmatic prostitute and quite intelligent but becomes treated as subhuman by clients simply because they’re paying her, they believe they can do whatever they want to her, which leads to painful consequences. Both Ben and Sera aren’t innocent of social norms either, Ben is somewhat resentful of Sera’s occupation and Sera resents Ben’s excessive drinking, leading to each other’s frustrations in the desire for a more normal life.

Forgiveness also seems to be a theme explored in the film. Ben’s problem has costed him dearly, yet all have chosen to punish him. When Sera has a slow night, she is punished both mentally and physically by her pimp and is kept on a shorter leash, basically getting harder to please. Even when at a resort hotel together, when they accidently break a small glass table, they’re immediately told to leave and to never return. It takes two people whom society would consider reprehensible to show the most humane human behaviour being friendship, compassion and forgiveness. However the genius of the film is that it’s done in a way where the audience also seem be the only ones who come to care for the two unfortunate people, hoping that things will improve for Ben and Sera even though most of us knows of the toll excessive alcohol takes on the body.

Despite a less the catchy title, the cliché saying of not judging a book by it’s cover applies to this film. The excellent performances are a treat in their own right, but the very human story is one people can identify with to turn a little talked about film into a masterpiece.

Francis Bisaillon