The Last Showgirl (15)
Directed by Gia Coppola

 
A FADING Las Vegas showgirl has to face the reality that her decades-long dream job is over when her show abruptly closes after its 30-year run in this poignant and raw study of life on the Strip. 

Pamela Anderson gives the performance of her career as the uber-positive 57-year-old Shelly who has a major wake-up call when she attends her first audition in years to be told she is long past her sell-by date. Her older dear friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), who works as a cocktail waitress in one of the casinos, also faces ageism and discrimination in her workplace. 

It’s directed by Gia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter) and written by Kate Gersten who adapted her own play Body of Work for the big screen. Le Razzle Dazzle, which Shelly performs in, is based on the Jubilee! show which closed in 2016. 

Shot in 18 days, the film portrays these glamorous women’s mundane lives and the hardships they face. In Shelly’s case this is trying to cope with being a single mother and ending up estranged from her daughter (Billie Lourd) who cannot believe how her mum put her career first. Plus it shows a stripped-back version of Vegas which is shown in a completely different light here. 

The film provides a fascinating exploration of resilience and how women are forced to reinvent themselves when they reach a certain age. It is very much out with the old and in with the new and much younger version. That is driven home by Curtis suddenly dancing sexily to Bonnie Tyler’s A Total Eclipse Of The Heart in the middle of the casino. What is heartbreaking is that no-one is watching her. 

While Anderson is a major revelation, imbuing Shelly with a great deal of pathos, the rest of the cast is equally great. Curtis gives a tour-de-force performance as the perma-tanned Annette and Dave Bautista is surprisingly gentle and sensitive as the revue’s producer Eddie.  

This is a great homage to the iconic showgirl but also to working-class women on the Strip. Although it is heart-wrenching it is unexpectedly hopeful too. 

In cinemas February 28.