Leaving Las Vegas

For Cage, the role in this understated, low-budget film was a true blessing, it opened for him the door to prominent directors and roles in expensive blockbusters. Cage deserved his Oscar for playing a man determined to drink himself to death. This time his limited acting range didn't even matter. (13.04.2003)

I’ve seen plenty of alcoholics in my town but none of them was like Nicolas Cage. This proves that there are thousands of different kinds of alcoholics. I don’t mean to disrespect Nicolas’ performance in any way, but I simply feel that if you were to compare the amount of alcohol drunk on screen to the length of the movie, it would far exceed any lethal doses related to alcohol. Nicolas drinks a lot… and when he’s not drinking, he starts shaking like a leaf. And then he drinks. I mean it’s his right to do that as much as it is Elisabeth Shue’s right to fall in love with a guy like that. It definitely was a very moving romance with which you know from the start how it’s going to end. On the other hand, I tip my hat off to their making such a movie for a salary in the form of cheap Moldovan vodka. The acting performances were nice, but I felt it was too fake. (26.11.2015)

I want you to speak and listen. Just stay. No one can say they have seen all kinds of romantic dramas until they have visited Las Vegas with Ben and Sarah. This movie is not perfect, it has moments that only vary the problems given by the plot, but it has such a flawless atmosphere of clubs, casinos, never-ending nightlife, and self-destructive drinking that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. The story of two lost souls is incredibly harsh, but it's precisely in its uncompromising nature that it's also desperately honest. It's not just about Ben, after all. It's about a symbolic journey to save Sarah, to save her beauty and symbolically cleanse her soul. Once you visit Las Vegas, it's hard to leave. During the day, you will seek alcohol and the meaning of life behind the sounds of an unstoppable clarinet, and at night, to the sounds of a melancholic piano and a sad trumpet, you will encounter your last salvation. (10.07.2007)

Two lonely hearts collide amidst an endless ocean of eye-burning neon. Suggestive, haunting, honest, moving. One of the highlights of 90s American cinema. (29.12.2003)

Alcohol, if not approached with love and responsibility, can be shit. A rather limited message, but let's not kid ourselves, Nicolas Cage's performance crams it into our heads with a vigour that few in the intimate psychological drama genre can match. You only have to see it once, but we should all see it... (02.07.2012)