Word: ace
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...SHOULD HAVE BEEN there a few weeks ago when Steve Forbes held one of his campaign bashes at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Joan Rivers emceed. The $1,000-a-plate tables were flush with interested parties like Alan ("Ace") Greenberg, head of the prominent investment firm Bear Stearns, and Leonard Lauder of the Estee Lauder cosmetics family. More than 1,400 people attended, which meant about $1.2 million for the campaign treasury. It was a big night for Forbes, his most successful fund raiser...
When the most charismatic aspects of both Ace and Las Vegas are on display the effect is hypnotic. Ace really believes that he sells dreams, and his naivete is contagious. The shots of the Las Vegas Strip are are as seductive as have ever appeared in film. Whereas Mike Figgis presents a gloomier view in his exceptional "Leaving Las Vegas" and Paul Verhoeven fails to leave a lasting impression with "Showgirls," Scorsese chooses to focus on the intertwining glamour and power in this fickle town...
...course, Ace and Ginger quickly become an item, and when Ace makes her an offer she can't refuse, they get engaged. The fact that they are not in love is less important than the fact that they are swimming in money. In Las Vegas, money is the only prerequisite for happiness...
Tension builds and the film unravels when a boyhood friend of Ace's named Nick Santorro (Pesci) moves to Las Vegas. Nick is an enforcer whose job is to protect Ace. Instead he uses his innate charm and frantic firsts to intimidate just about everyone in Las Vegas. Nick's flamboyant style and brutal methods alienate everyone. When Nick, Ace and Ginger degenerate into a lying, cheating and stealing triangle, the film too gets stuck...
...characters are driven by greed and last--those traits which are celebrated in Vegas--this film works. But soon the main characters lose their passion and the script, by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi, can offer them no real options. In "Casino" everyone is content to gamble without worrying. When Ace, Ginger and Nicky finally do lose everything, it's too late--the audience has stopped caring. The impression which remains is a richness of atmosphere which is sickening...