Tripwire Reviews Leaving Las Vegas Restoration On Blu Ray Soon

Lives Lived On The Edge

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews StudioCanal’s 4k restoration of Mike Figgis’ Leaving Las Vegas on blu ray from 18 May…

Leaving Las Vegas
Director: Mike Figgis
Stars: Nicolas Cage, Elizabeth Shue

Leaving Las Vegas from British director Mike Figgis originally came out back in 1995 and StudioCanal has just released a 4K restoration of it.

Leaving Las Vegas tells the unlikely love story between failed Hollywood screenwriter and alcoholic Ben Sanderson (Cage) and prostitute Sera (Shue). Figgis is a director with a reasonably low-key CV up to this point but this is definitely his most ambitious film.

Cage has made a range of shockingly bad films in his careers but Leaving Las Vegas, which Cage won for Best Actor in 1996, is a high watermark for him.

Reining in his more manic proclivities, Cage is exceptional here as the portrayal of a man living on the edge. The chemistry between him and Shue as his sometimes saviour but mostly his enabler is something else too. Shue has never been better than she is here, offering a performance that moves from desperation to tenderness with the consummate ease of a professional. She has a magnetism on screen that is impossible to look away from. There is a refreshing ambiguity about the relationship between the pair with Sera feeling like she’s the one in control here right up until a particularly brutal scene near the end of the film where she loses that upper hand to a group of teenage boys.

Figgis as a director also moves the action along in an unshowy, almost verité fashion. He is very much a figure of the 1980s and 1990s and he gets the best out of his lead actors.

The restoration here does lift it off the screen a little, giving it more impact for the viewer.

The extras here are decent with an hour-long making of documentary which offers us a glimpse into Figgis’ approach and interviews with Cage and Shue which also shine a light on the production.

Leaving Las Vegas is very much a two-handed drama, offering us a tantalising version of a Cage who displays an emotional depth and a sense of human tragedy from someone whose life just took a wrong turn. Shue is the perfect partner for his increasing dive into despair.

Hollywood doesn’t really make films like this any more which is a shame. It is a very bleak but well-made modern drama.

Here’s the restored film’s trailer