Unlike actors, who
contrary to popular belief are just flesh and blood, there are a few film
subjects that never get old. Love, friendship and the unstoppable onset of age
are a handful of such timeless themes and all three are presented with warmth,
humor and respect in Last Vegas.
This low-key yet
flashy film presents four of the finest actors of the past thirty years: Robert
De Niro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline, as four childhood
pals from Brooklyn who gather in Las Vegas to celebrate the marriage of the last
bachelor among them. Michael Douglas plays Billy, an aging west coast big shot
who finally breaks down and proposes to his much younger girlfriend during his
eulogy for a deceased business mentor. Robert De Niro plays Paddy, Billy’s best
friend who is still holding a grudge over the LA impresario’s failure to appear,
or even call, when his wife died a year earlier. There are deep, long standing
animosities between Billy and Paddy, and these threaten not only the Vegas
weekend but their 60 year friendship. Morgan Freeman appears as Archie, a man
struggling to regain his freedom after suffering a mild stroke that has sent
his son Ezra (Michael Ealy) into full blown panic protection/control mode.
Rounding out this venerable quartette is Kevin Kline as Sam, a man with his
wife Miriam’s (Joanna Gleason) permission to fool around in Vegas so long as
she doesn’t hear about it – what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.
While Archie and Sam at times seem little
more than comic relief to the heavier drama between Billy and Paddy, their
stories do get enough attention to afford them satisfying resolutions. All
told, the stories and characters complement each other well in this light-hearted
film about grown-up quandaries.
Also featuring in this old-timer’s
weekend in Vegas film is Mary Steenburgen as Diana, a lounge singer who
attracts the romantic attentions of both Billy and Paddy. Diana’s presence not
only complicates the old buddies’ already tense times, but also plays an
important role that drama’s ultimate outcome. Ms. Steenburgen herself proves by
playing Diana that a woman 60 years young can still be charming and sexy.
There’s a lot of fun to be had
watching Last Vegas – even the two
tween-agers sitting behind me occasionally laughed out loud. (I’m pretty sure
they walked into the wrong theater, Ender’s
Game was playing in the theater next door.) When the climactic party scene
gets too wild in the guy’s penthouse suite none other than rap star Curtis
Jackson III, a.k.a. Fifty-Cent, makes a cameo as himself, first complaining about
the noise, then asking if he can come in… “Fiddy” is refused entry by the party’s
gate-keeper. While nowhere near the same class as On Golden Pond or even The
Sunshine Boys, this picture, written by Dan Fogelman (Cars, Stupid Crazy Love) and directed by Jon Turteltaub (The Kid, National Treasure), knows better
than to even attempt such lofty melodramatic heights and stand on its own
merits. Those merits are multiple, a good time at the movies with some great actors
playing people to whom grown-ups can relate and its all set in the town that
has become – for good or bad – a giant theme park for grown-ups.
Perhaps the most satisfying aspect
to this film is its genuineness in dealing with the issues of aging and loneliness.
Even though these issues are dealt with in comic fashion no punches are pulled.
A stroke would be a serious mortality wake-up call to most people, as would the
loss of the woman you’ve loved since you were children in the same Brooklyn
neighborhood. Last Vegas confronts and
comforts those cruel realities as well as any film, and does so while keeping
the schmaltz meter set squarely at zero.
Watching Last Vegas made me realize that I’d rather spend 90 minutes
watching Robert De Niro and Michael Douglas barely talk to each other than
watch 100 minutes of $150Million in CGI special effects. Those tweeners behind
me may someday realize themselves they feel the same way. I hope so at least,
and that’s coming from a guy who was the kid who saw Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom five times in the summer of ’84.
Last Vegas is definitely a must see,
I’m still smiling thinking of it, although admittedly it’s a wistful smile.
