adminReviewed by Prof Joel White
Film: Last Vegas
Casts: Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Kline, Mary Steenburgen, Michael Ealey, Noah Harder, Mini Gould.
At one time, in the 1960s, I was a one-year resident of Hollywood and for the rest of its 93-year history an avid follower of its ups and downs.
It should have seemed inevitable to me that, one day, a film would be made examining and questioning the exalted status of its most notable residents.
Located in the State of California Hollywood, on the western, Pacific Ocean edge of America, has never resented the reputation which most Americans believe it portrays.
Representing and giving voice to the wishful thinking which allows most men and women, world-wide, to tolerate and continue living the bland existence to which people ultimately adjust, Hollywood has wrapped itself in the aura with which people view it: all things are possible.
In the past two decades there has been a steadily increasing tolerance, worldwide, battering, and winning, against century old taboos, which, for centuries, denied the many violations against nature’s having placed on Earth an inhabitant which exhibited the multifarious possibilities of a free agent.
In paying homage to the adulation of youth, Hollywood’s denizens, unlike all other Americans, never mention certainly never celebrate birthdays. Although I doubt it, can it be that this film owes its existence to an increasing belief that each decade of life even the later ones brings with it a desirable characteristic.
Morgan Freeman (88) portrays an independent, happy go lucky bachelor who has never questioned his solitary state. Aged 7, Michael Douglas’ character has joined his mates in Las Vegas, leaving behind a girlfriend less than half his age.
At age 71, Robert De Niro’s character has, for his long life, been a grumpy complainer, expressing his disgust and non-acceptance of his friend’s behaviour.
70 year-old Kevin Kline’s character has viewed his position as a lifelong loser, expecting even accepting his release by drying. Into his life, upsetting all his quiet indolence, comes the character played by 61 year-old Mary Steenburgen.
In short, this film steps away from Hollywood’s persistent presentation of life’s span as a perennial three ring circus. Can it be a forerunner of things yet to come?
Online Reporter