D Melting Pot

I told myself for a long time that I should see this movie, but never got around to it. While searching imdb for things I should download, I remembered LLV and I'm glad I didn't forget.

I don't think I can recall having ever watched a movie as paradoxical as this. It's so sad yet I'm fascinated by the idealistic conception of how two people can fall in love in a world of filth and shit. You can genuinely feel the intimate relation these two people had at a time when they hit rock bottom. It was plain to see the Cage's character was worse off that Shue, but God, I couldn't help but find it amazing that she could look past the alcoholism and see something good in him. I don't think women like her exist, and if they do it's only cuz they have hit rock bottom and a drop of love in an ocean of sadness is all they need.

It's ironic that society labels Shue's character (a prostitute) weak, a drain on all things productive and relevant to what is needed in a community. Yet prostitution is the worlds oldest profession, that in itself should tell people that as prideful as the middle class and elitists might be, they still cannot ignore their basic sexual needs. People treat a hooker like shit because they are insecure that they can't manage to get a woman in bed like "normal" people. In order to come to terms with their filth and lust they must seem more like a man by slapping her around or calling her names. It's often quite convenient to cast a label on someone when you are either insecure about yourself of not in a position to make an objective analysis of why it came to this.

The movie was over the top in the sense that you think to yourself that no woman would ever put up with Cage's shit and no man could ever drink that much. Then you begin to appreciate why Shue's character is willing. You put yourself in her shoes for a second and appreciate that she no longer feels like a woman, no longer feels like a human being. People look at her with scorn and contempt. She feels hollow and does what she must to survive. She has managed to obtain a reasonable method of financial security and an apartment to lay her head, yet lacks the emotional security of a man and place to call home. As pathetic and sorrowful as Cage's character is, he fills that void because they share a common thread. It's ironic that these two find love in America's playground of filth and sin. They are casted as the lowest of the low yet most viewers will be able to relate to their basic longing to love and be loved. No one will accept them for who they are much less take time to understand how they got there.



It's beautiful to see them find solace in each other. To watch as Cage makes Shue feel like a person, a woman again. As Shue, accepts Cage for what he is and let's him drown his sorrows of the past in the way he has chosen. It's hurting her to see him throw his life away and the potential life they could have. You can't help but wonder why she doesn't pull the bottle away from him as he slips further and further into a comatose state. Man did he punish his liver. But then, she made that promise right...and the relationship is volatile. I say there's a beauty to this sorrow because even though you know it's going to end badly you can't help but think if these are the circumstances then live for the moment, savor it to the last drop.

You think of Cage in the bank recording a voice note of his dream fantasy with the hot teller. Of alcohol beading down her body as he fucks her. Yes, in every sense of the fantasy it is an alcoholic mans dream, but try to dig deeper. When Shue, unbeknownst to her, does this very thing at the pool side she's simply accepting a man for all his faults and short comings. She hopes that in so doing he will realize that she is accepting him for who he is, and that in itself will help him to wake up and realize that there is still a life waiting for him. This in of itself is very important. It shows the road less taken with relationships. Often when a couple is faced with an issue which involves personal change they will criticize their partner until they break down their self-esteem. Once this has been accomplished they will try to build them back up in the light they wish to see them.

This is the problem with many relationships, and women in particular. The see what they want their man to be, not what he is. Nothing is wrong with this, but they go about provoking change the wrong way. Instead of compromising and evolving change through time, love, and patience they take the easy route of breaking a mans spirit via arguments, cognitive games, sex deprivation and verbal abuse. Shue's character was the opposite, the more Cage faultered, the more she was there for him. Then again...it could be argued that this is an extremist approach...and I think this is the point the director/writer were trying to make.

Unfortunately, Cage can't seem to let go of the life he lost, the wife and child, the job...it's amazingly depressing to see him throw away this second chance at life and in the process see Shue's character disintegrate as well. Again...woulda, coulda shoulda. He keeps calling Sera his Angel throughout the movie because she represents the idealistic conception of what his dream woman is...a woman that doesn't leave him for his fuck-ups but takes the little good in him with all the bad...she's willing to make that sacrifice...which is part of what love is all about. I kept hoping that Cage would wake up and be a man, drop the bottle and pick up the pieces of his life. Maybe get a new job writing in Vegas, which would in turn allow Shue to stop hooking and so forth. The happy go lucky, rainbow care bear ending so to say.

But the movie is brutally honest and thus sincere. After all this is a movie about an alcoholic and a hooker in Vegas...I mean come on. That in itself is interesting, because as much as the director attempts to get your hopes up, it's like, at the end he's saying...keep it real. In real life this shit wouldn't happen and as much as we all want to go to Vegas and be movie stars, poker players, sex gods and millionaires there's really no happy ending...it's simply a means to an end. Instead I think the lesson is everything in moderation....balance....and in so making the sacrifice to limit one self, you will find true happiness.

Cage and Shue are like the many people who get caught in the trap of either living to work or working to live. Life is not black and white. Just because you live life by the standard that society tells you to doesn't mean you can make up for the time lost via a vacation of lust, greed and excess (everything Vegas represents at the end of the day). Working 20 hour days and trying to justify it to yourself through instant gratification will not bring you happiness. On the contrary, living on the edge via alcoholism, prostitution, gambling, drugs and so forth will only lead to depression.

In the end I think this is a movie about relationships. Relationships of how people in society view each other, of how men and women look at each other and the roles we play. In so doing we must face the harsh truth about who we are as men, women, and the community we form as a result of the relationships we build around us.