SAINT JOHN OF LAS VEGAS (2009) is much less than the sum of its parts

Posted by Daniel Metz

The trailer for this film, probably not coming to a theatre near you, makes it out to be an indie version of The Hangover. A sassy, edgy comedy set in Las Vegas featuring Sarah Silverman and starring Steve, ain’t nobody more indie than me, Buscemi. Oh no, fellow cinephiles, do not let the trailer fool you.

Oh, the American landscape. I get it.

Saint John of Las Vegas is actually a road movie that has only about five minutes in Las Vegas and those scenes are on the outskirts of the city; the only casino in the film is a hick-tavern where Buscemi plays a whopping sixty dollars on a black jack table (he is the only player, too). The rest of the film is a long and dry insurance investigation/scheme that is not all that interesting.

More so than The Hangover, the film reminds me of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. It is a film that goes from one strange encounter to the next, hurdling ridiculously toward a climax you don’t really care about. Buscemi and his partner, played real cool by Romany Malco of “Weeds,” find themselves in a strip club with a wheelchair-bound dancer, a national park at night with a gathering of nudists who are accidentally wearing hats, and a malfunctioning circus freak who is trapped in a fire suit that keeps flaring up like some kind of Biblical/mythological curse.

One of the best scenes in the film features this guy who periodically is engulfed in flames.

The film is run-of-the-mill in that respect, and the gags simply aren’t funny. It actually might not even be a comedy. More so than anything, the film seems to be about Buscemi’s gambling problem, and how he is attempting to live with that while allowing for the occasional indulgence. The problem here is that the whodunnit/mystery narrative is really ill fit for this kind of character film. The journey that he takes does not properly mirror his internal struggle; the two themes here are sewn together without that all important common thread.

Yes, he is taunted by Vegas, and their trip brings them near it. But they don’t have to investigate in a casino, they don’t meet gamblers, he doesn’t have to overcome his problem in order to solve the case. In fact, the case sort of solves itself, and his involvement in the investigation is basically insignificant.

Don't worry: the things she is saying on the phone are sweet, not filthy. Doesn't she look charming?

One of the redeeming things for me in this film is Sarah Silverman. I am not a fan of Miss Silverman. When she burst onto the national stand-up scene in the early part of the 21st century, I thought she was funny but her style is too schticky for me and once you get the joke, I don’t know why you’d keep coming back for more. Here, she is surprisingly sexy as the eccentric love interest. She never makes a dirty joke or does anything gross at all. I hate to say it, and it is probably offensive, but all Silverman needs to do is shut her mouth and she is a formidable screen presence. Her look is unique and her voice sweet; if she would just stop making poop jokes she’d likely go further than a third season of a bad tv show on an increasingly pathetic cable station.

The scene with the circus performer is actually quite good and deserves some mention. As in many of the shots in last years underrated Adventureland, scenes of old-fashioned, local carnivals/circuses can be photographed incredibly beautifully. The neon in these places is classy and illuminates the sky with the colors of youth, freedom, and fun, and act as a reminder that man can have a say in making things beautiful.

You can't tell me that image isn't striking.

it is actually quite funny to think of the neon of the ferris wheel and merry-go-round as a contrast to the most photographed neon in American cinema, the Las Vegas strip. This film, which has Vegas in the title, doesn’t devote a frame to filming the Eiffel Tower or whatever trashy monuments are illuminated in Sin City nowadays. In our cinema we need less shots of hotels signs and more frisbees, loopers, and enterprises. I simply don’t understand why more filmmakers don’t take advantage of one of America’s most stunning location-types.