Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

Oh, the injustice of the Academy's system for honoring actors.  How can Nicholas Cage win the best actor award and Elisabeth Shue not win best actress?  Are either of their performances possible without the other?  Well, Cage had less competition (and Thompson and Shue were robbed by sentimental/political voters giving one to Susan Sarandon).  Sigh.  In the brief time he has, Julian Sands is also excellent in helping to establish Shue's background (I'd give Richard Lewis his props, too, but let's be realistic).

And really, the performances are why you should watch this movie, because the script/direction are mostly adequate with one serious stumble.

**spoilers**

That stumble, of course, is the scene with the college boys, which is clumsily handled and the outcome obvious from the moment Sera goes out on the town after kicking Ben out of her home. We already know that her life as a prostitute is hard; we already know that it's dangerous; we don't need to brutally punish Sera with uncharacteristically bad judgement because she's piqued by Ben's "infidelity".  I know that they want Sera hurt just before the end of the film so that she can be healed, but I think it's unnecessary because she's been hurt enough.  If they must have her further injured, then the scene and setup needed to be handled with greater tact, and ideally so that we don't see it coming, because as it is, it disrupts the flow of the movie.