VEGAS: BASED ON A TRUE STORY

US, 2008, 102 minutes, Colour.
Mark Greenfield, Nancy La Scala, Zac Thomas, Walt Turner, Alexis Hart.
Directed by Amir Naderi.

Iranian director, Amir Nadiri, has lived in the United States for over twenty years. He has made a number of small-budget films, looking at what to moviegoers is familiar in different ways, from his original Middle Eastern perspective. He observed New York in Manhattan By Numbers (1993) and now turns his gaze on Las Vegas. He says he has spent quite an amount of time around Vegas and has listened to many, many stories, especially hard luck stories from those who live there.

This is the grounds for that part of his title: Based on a True Story.

In fact, this is a very different Vegas story. The skyline is seen in the distance. The action takes place outside the main strip and away from the luxury casinos. None of the characters work in the casinos or have any immediate contact with them. This is a Las Vegas of the suburbs, a rather dreary and dusty landscape where people live in cheap houses, having graduated from trailers. Filmed digitally, Vegas has a down beat, gritty look that is often unattractive but is real.

The film focuses on the Parker family. Eddie (Mark Greenfield) works at a tyre repair mart, not a glamorous occupation. Tracy (Nancy La Scala) works as a waitress in a local diner. They have a 12 year old son, Mitch (Zach Thomas) who goes to school, likes some solitude in the family's old caravan but has some friends from school. Eddie goes down to the bar for a drink. Tracy is obsessively house proud – and spends a great deal of her energy in laying down house regulations and insisting on their observance. She has great pride in developing a front lawn and watering it and some flowers and tomatoes she grows.

All seems pretty ordinary, though we discover that both Eddie and Tracy are recovering gambling addicts.

When they are visited by a marine who tells them that he used to live in the house and that his mother is offering a high cash price to buy it again, Tracy will not even consider it. She has had the right intuition because the marine is not a marine but has a theory that the million dollar proceeds of a 1965 robbery at the Sands is buried under their front yard.

St James says that the love of money is the root of all evil. It is certainly illustrated by the zest with which Eddie starts digging with the help of Mitch. Tracy strongly resists. When she discovers some evidence that the story is plausible, they dig and dig and dig. Whether they find the money or not and what Brian is doing to them is a strong motive for watching the film. Whether they find the money or not, the digging has an appalling effect on their lives.

With a small budget, some fine acting and a compellingly different look at Las Vegas, gambling and greed, Amir Naderi offers us a telling allegory. Winner of a SIGNIS Commendation at the 2008 Venice Film Festival.

1.The independent film-making, small budget, amateur cast? Small film? Based on a true story, the truth about Las Vegas?

2.The title, the focus, on the periphery of the city, the glimpses of the casinos in the centre, staying in the suburbs, the desert, the homes, the tyre workshop, the diner, school, the church, the trailer world? The image of Las Vegas? The reality? The atmospheric score?

3.The title – the basis on a true story, or rather based on the truth about Las Vegas, the people, their histories, gambling, ruin?

4.The director and his Iranian background, working in the United States, the outsider’s view and vision?

5.The introduction to the family: ordinary, the information about the past, Eddie and Tracy and their gambling, reformed? Tracy and her job at the diner, her friendship with Doris, interactions with the customers, the bets about tips? Doris as a friend? Relying on her, crashing at her house, taking Mitchell to the party? Eddie and his working with the tyres, his pals, reformed? The small gambling each day, the beer and the smokes? Tracy as the boss, prescriptive in the house? The neatness of the house, everything clean? The garden, the rules? Mitchell and his age, going to school, Stephanie, Russ and his friends, the bullying? Confiding in Stephanie?

6.Brian and his arrival, sitting in the car, the marine’s story, the death of his father, his mother wanting to buy the family house, his fighting in Iraq? The price for the house, pursuing each of the family, the reaction of each? The discovery of the truth about him? His plausible story about the gang and the million dollars in the suitcase buried under the house? Brian and his sitting watching the digging? The police arriving and warning about the scam? The truth about Brian?

7.The nature of the scam, reality betting and the various stages depending on what the family did?

8.Eddie, his character, a good man, a weak man? His interest in the story, his behaviour? Believing, starting to dig, Tracy’s reaction, Mitchell and his help? The single spot, the increasing digging, going into the garden, deeper, the flowers going, the tomatoes going, the destruction of the greenhouse? Getting the drill, the bulldozer? The wreck, the inside of the house wrecked, slovenly? His making demands on Mitchell? Tracy’s going? The intensity of the obsession?

9.Tracy, reluctant, the discovery of the pipe, her leaving and staying with Doris? The suitcase handle, her doing the research in the documents and the papers, her agreeing to dig, her exhaustion, destroying her plants, her decision to leave?

10.Mitchell, his initial enthusiasm, helping, the change, his father’s obsession, buying the beer and cigarettes, the takeaway meals, the television and watching the gambling? His going with his mother, returning? Russ and the job of giving out the cards, talking with Stephanie in the trailer, her coming by, giving her the lovebirds to look after? (And the symbol of the three birds in the cage?) His finally going to school again with Stephanie?

11.The drama of the film, the film as an allegory about greed – and a different Las Vegas story?