Leaving Las Vegas

Hollywood screenwriter Ben Sanderson (Nicolas Cage) is a hopeless drunk and self-destructing. He loses his job and his family. He decides to destroy everything in his home, drive to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. He runs into call girl Sera (Elisabeth Shue) and hires her. Her abusive pimp Yuri (Julian Sands) had followed her out from L.A. He's broke and on the run from a gang. Ben and Sera begin a relationship accepting each other's flaws. However these flaws overtake them in the end.

This is a movie about a drunk and a hooker with a heart of gold. Cage and Shue make this more than the simple cliché it sounds like. They infuse these characters with humanity. They give two great performances.