Pamela Anderson gives an impressive performance in The Last Showgirl as a middle aged Las Vegas showgirl facing the closure of the revue she has been performing with for decades. Directed by Gia Coppola and adapted for screen by Kate Gersten from her own play; The Last Showgirl is an affecting study of a person desperately avoiding the question of what it means had spent her time and life well.

 

Pamela Anderson is Shelly Gardner, a long service, experienced showgirl, who has performed with the same revue in Las Vegas  for 30 years. Comfortable with her station and life’s work, she waxes lyrical to the young ones in her team about the tenuous European roots of the revue, its place in Las Vegas culture and her personal history with it.

 

Shelly’s estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) has little compassion for her following Shelly’s choice to prioritise the revue over raising a child.  Shelly’s best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former showgirl turned cocktail waitress certainly doesn’t embody nor encourage the wisest of decisions made despite having gone through what Shelly is now experiencing. Shelly is someone who has spent life avoiding the hard questions, in denial of or oblivious to responsibility. She has never grown up and now life has turned against her, to which she is unprepared to handle.

 

Pamela Anderson gives a vivid portrayal of a self-interested, naive person. It’s a tragedy that Shelly has spent her life in this way to sacrifice substantive meaning in pursuit of ephemeral glory. Jamie Lee Curtis is excellent as the funny, boozy and jaded best friend Annette, who really should have advised Shelly of the coming tide, but instead just rode it down with her.

 

Shelly is in deep denial of her personal and family responsibility: Gersten has written a layered and interesting character which Anderson to brings to life in all her beauty and flaws. A key scene between Billie Lourd’s Hannah and Shelly after viewing the revue for the first time is a powerful moment in the film’s exploration of Shelly’s character; reinforced in the final scene of the film where Shelly performs for the last time.

 

The Last Showgirl features an amazing performance from Pamela Anderson that is tragic and affecting in the face of uncertainty of the future.