User Reviews

This film starts somewhere interesting, but goes in a different direction; and doesn't manage to stay as interesting as it is when it begins. It starts with a depiction of the American dream in its rawest form: a family, a rented vehicle and a journey to Las Vegas in search of work and a better life. The film-makers follow the family for their first few weeks, devoid of money, living in their car. Yet after the opening segment, the movie changes. The wife finds work and manages to rent a surprisingly nice house; but the husband has drug problems and their relationship begins to fall apart. This could still make for riveting viewing, but the film just isn't intimate enough to tell this story; the family is visited by the film-makers for a few weeks every year, and while they talk about the great dramas that have affected them, it's precisely that - talk - and the viewer is left detached and emotionally indifferent. What can't help but affect one, however, is the appalling death rate among America's poor - the sheer number of people with drug problems, and the consequences this has. But overall, this film falls between the stools of the general and the particular - these are scenes from a life, for sure, but not told to any particular affect.

I wish more films like this were being made! I found the humanity in Road to Las Vegas so moving. We are shown real, complicated people who move through life making good and bad decisions -- meanwhile the political and econimic ups and downs work their way into the lives of these characters. This is a subtle piece of work which reveals itself slowly to the viewer and lasts well after the credits have rolled. I was moved to tears by this film and would love to see more from this director.