American Beauty Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
... look closer
Lester and Carolyn Burnham are on the outside, a perfect husband and wife, in a perfect house, in a perfect neighborhood. But inside, Lester is slipping deeper and deeper into a hopeless depression. He finally snaps when he becomes infatuated with one of his daughters friends. Meanwhile, his daughter Jane is developing a happy friendship with a shy boy-next-door named Ricky who lives with a homophobic father.
| Annette Bening | Carolyn Burnham |
| Thora Birch | Jane Burnham |
| Wes Bentley | Ricky Fitts |
| Kevin Spacey | Lester Burnham |
| Mena Suvari | Angela Hayes |
| Chris Cooper | Col. Frank Fitts, USMC |
| Peter Gallagher | Buddy Kane |
| Allison Janney | Barbara Fitts |
| Scott Bakula | Jim Olmeyer |
| Sam Robards | Jim Berkley |
| Barry Del Sherman | Brad Dupree |
| Ara Celi | Sale House Woman #1 |
| John Cho | Sale House Man #1 |
| Fort Atkinson | Sale House Man #2 |
| Sue Casey | Sale House Woman #2 |
| Sam Mendes |
8.50 out of 10 (126467 votes)
Visitor Reviews
American Analgesic.
posted on 30 Aug 2009It's a sorry state of affairs when a movie masterminded by the creator of "Cybill" is treated as the second coming, but for once I can understand the hoopla. American Beauty is a very seductive film -- so seductive that it's easy to overlook the fact that it amounts to roughly bubkes. It's ironic that the tagline is "Look closer," because this movie ONLY holds up when left unexamined -- under scrutiny, it crumbles like Annette Bening's empowered-woman facade.What an anomaly! Scene-by-scene American Beauty is brilliant; overall, it's shoddily conceived, full of holes, and more than a little sophistic. At the end -- don't worry, I won't spoil anything worth spoiling -- Kevin Spacey's character says ( in voiceover, yech ) something about how we must enjoy the little things in life, and that's basically the whole philosophy here; true child-of-the-60's stuff. Just to take a small example of the film's many missteps, Spacey -- who has undergone a Kubrickian metamorphosis from downsized sadsack to teenager reborn -- makes a break with his materialistic, status-seeking past by... Buying a car? Drinking beer?
EXERCISING? Excuse me, but isn't that what yuppies do? And there's a mistake within a mistake here, because no one who has suddenly become a fitness nut would also become a drunkard at the same time, even if he is trying to show his wife how liberated he is.As for the director, Sam Mendes, let's just say that the guy definitely knows his way around a camera but fudges a few things, most notably the substory of Spacey's crush on his daughter's best friend. Middle-aged men who want to prong underaged girls generally do not fantasize about them shooting rose petals from their chests, not even if those middle-aged men are professional poets, which Lester -- who writes ad copy -- is most assuredly not. Subliminal cuts of the girl in various pornographic poses would have been more honest, but then again, this movie is about as edgy as a donut, despite what the critics will tell you, and always opts for prettiness over provocation.Now for the good news: American Beauty is a rare case of a film where the actors are more important than anyone behind the camera, and all the actors -- except Annette Bening, who appears to have been coached by a different director than everyone else, perhaps Friz Freleng -- rise to the occasion admirably. Especially Kevin Spacey. He has been impressive before, of course, but here he's simply... Well, "Voila un homme," to quote Napoleon.
He's the essence of humanity, as hyperbolic as that sounds. Thank god for this man who doesn't indulge in Oscar moments, never cries, never speechifies, just radiates intelligence and common sense and joy in his own talent. His performance and character make the movie great, even though it's not a great movie, and he has now officially paid Pacino back for his reported rudeness on the set of Glengarry Glen Ross by becoming a much better actor. Headhunters of the press, DO NOT ask this man if he's gay again -- he needs to be free to play whoever he wants. Julia Roberts already has her tart-tongued sidekick, okay? Leave the guy alone.The high school scenes in American Beauty were shot at my alma mater, by the way. I don't know why I feel compelled to mention this but I do. I almost fainted dead away at the sight of those Spartanettes. Ah, the memories...
A comedic version of "The Ice Storm"
posted on 30 Aug 2009I am really tired of movies and stories about people who can't or won't do the right thing. Or even try to do the right thing. "American Beauty" is a story about seven people: Lester, Carolyn, daughter Jane, neighbors Ricky, his mom and dad, and Angela, temptress girlfriend of Jane. Lester is tired of his Dilbertesque job. He extorts money from the company and quits to go work at a hamburger stand. Carolyn hates her life and feels inadequate at her job so she has an affair. Jane runs off with drug dealer Ricky. Ricky's dad is a homophobe and control freak. He likes to control everything but his own emotions and actions. Ricky's mom is a zombie. Angela is a foul-mouthed American beauty that wants everyone to believe she's the neighborhood tramp.These pathetic people are not worth watching for 2 hours, especially when the film's narrator tells you he's dead before the story starts. And after a 2 hours, we see him die and learn that Lester is pleased with his life. No Oscar nominations from this non-voting, non-member of the Academy.
Poignant, Witty, Disturbing and Real
posted on 30 Aug 2009This is the kind of movie I had hoped Hollywood was capable of making.From the superb acting to the lovely cinemaphotography, American Beauty was a near-flawless movie. Though it dragged on a little towards the end, it was well-worth my 8 bucks and I look forward to seeing it again.Kevin Spacey's performance as a mid-life crisised advertising agency drone was brilliant. His range of emotion as his character's journey unfolded was spot-on: from sadness and hopelessness to rage and (mild) euphoria, Spacey really conveyed the feelings of his character. I felt what his character felt.American Beauty's strengths, however, were its phenomenal dialogue and well-matched supporting cast. Smart and witty dialogue based in the gritty realism of a family falling apart combined with a solid, well-written movie with a cast talented enough to pull-it off is a rarity. Beauty's cast was seamless. Great performances by all.A truly lovely movie through and through, I highly recommend American Beauty.
Pretty good, but not the best
posted on 30 Aug 2009I thought this movie was really good, and goes on my top ten for the year.
I seriously doubt that it is deserving of the number seven movie of all time (which it is listed as at the time of this review, but will probably drop as more votes come in). There are two faults I found with the movie:a) I didn't believe Benning's character would want to shoot Spacey. There just was no motivation for it. b) As it is today, the movie breaks little ground and seems full of cliches.Great acting and great direction stop the movie from becoming boring and pretentious. The characters are fully developed, with the exception of Benning's, which seemed to be developed up until the end. I think Spacey was really good, but Benning was the stand-out. Spacey didn't have a ton of challenging material here, and if you've seen him an any of his other roles, you'd realize this is a cakewalk for him. Still, great acting! Just not mind-blowing.9/10
Never mind the hype
posted on 30 Aug 2009Definitely worth seeing. Great performances. Good directing. Not as "daring", "insightful", "cutting-edge", or "original", as the critical hype-fest would lead us to believe (which is just another example of how lazy and intellectually flabby our critics have become).
Add it to your list to see.
posted on 30 Aug 2009I don't know what to say about this movie. Thankfully we have a movie that is devoted to character definition and dialog more than anything else. I'm always disappointed when I can easily have an outcome determined prior to the ending (Kevin Spacey's character will do that for you), but the quality of the writing keeps you watching.
A masterpiece!!
posted on 30 Aug 2009This movie is the best movie of 1999 so far without a doubt. It wonderfully blends some comedy with some really sad happenings and the whole tone of the movie is exactly right. You just know that no matter how hard the people in the movie try to make things right they never will be right. The acting is superb all the way through and the movie always suprises you in some ways. Highly reccomended!!
A really fine, unique movie about life, but not for youngsters.
posted on 30 Aug 2009Please don't get this movie confused with another 1999 movie, "American Pie", which was a funny but rather crude movie about horny teenagers all trying to get laid."American Beauty" is about real life, about dysfunctional families who don't realize why they are crazy. Until Lester (Kevin Spacey) figures it out. Quits his job, quits pretending he is something he is not, and learns to really begin to deal with life. There are lots of laughs, but also lots of drama.Make no mistake, this is a movie about Lester's life and death. "American Beauty" has the courage to look at "us". It does so through the eyes of Lester Burnham who tells you at the beginning that he is already dead. Interesting concept!!There are several other stories in the movie, but they are there only as they relate to Lester's. In some spots, it would be easy to walk out of the movie because of where you think it may be going. But stay, watch the whole thing, see how it all fits together and I think you'll agree it is a rare movie among all the special-effect, mega blockbuster that seems to be turned out like beanie babies. Although this one is totally different, the way its messages come through may remind you of movies like "Fargo" and "A Simple Plan". If you didn't think those were fine movies, skip this one.Kevin Spacey gives an award-quality performance. Most middle-aged men will quickly identify with his character. But turn the roles around and women should just as easily identify.The reason I say this movie is not for youngsters is because they have not lived enough to comprehend and identify with the characters. But the sex and language are not nearly as bad as some mainstream movies. There is nudity, and graphic discussion of sex acts and body parts among teenagers in this movie, but it probably was necessary within the overall context. I give it 9 of 10, a must-see for any adult who enjoys examining his or her situation in life.2009 edit: I have watched this movie several more times and have enjoyed it as much as I did on the first viewing.
The fix is in
posted on 30 Aug 2009With Critics clamoring for the season's `worthy' picture you will be hearing much hype about this film and the look and the acting and its freshness.
Warning don't get worked up over it because the end experience is as empty as Lester Burnham's life, the one portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who sets forth to fill out the stereotype of the all American WASP father of 9 to 5 is a vacuum. We have all seen this done better in The Ice Storm and with more originality in Blue Velvet. Spacey deserves all the praise that will be coming down the pike on his performance here and it is entirely on his shoulders that the film is carried with let downs from Bening and Birch. Be on the look out for key words like American suburban, middle- class, midlife crisis, and dysfunction along with psychological, sexual, sociological to keep popping up when this film is mentioned. These themes drive critics wild but Brit. Alan Ball does nothing more with it than take its long history in film, theater and lit and rearrange the parts, a formula for success on Broadway these days so Hollywood is not far behind. Skip it unfortunately you won't for long escape the vapid raves filled with hyperbole
This is a great movie- see it!
posted on 30 Aug 2009The tagline for AMERICAN BEAUTY sums up the whole two hours in two words.
Look closer.When we first see the suburb where most of the action takes place, the camera looks to be mounted on a helicopter. It glides along the tree lined streets.There's one house in particular where most of the action takes place. From the outside all is normal and nice. This could be a neighborhood from OZZIE AND HARRIET or FATHER KNOWS BEST. Look at the family living in the house with the red door. A man who works in advertising. His wife who sells real estate. His beautiful daughter. Look closer.These people are estranged from each other and, worst of all, from themselves. At the risk of lapsing into jargon, their authentic selves have long since been abandoned. Look closer.These are three desperately lonely people. On the one hand, the movie is hilarious. There is wild humor here that reminds you of WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF and THE GRADUATE. But these people are dying inside.The father becomes infatuated with a girl who's in the high school drill team with his daughter. She's a blonde beauty who's got ambitions of being a model. She seems tough as nails and ready to do anything to get what she wants. Look closer.The family next door is even more bizarre. The father is a homophobic, self-righteous retired military officer. The mother seems terrified out of her wits and is in a zombie-like state. Their son is involved with drugs.
He keeps reality at a distance by videotaping everything. He has a hauntingly beautiful tape of a plastic bag being blown by the wind that I could have watched for hours. When he gets involved with the girl from next door, we're sure that we know what's going to happen next. Look closer.If the movie has a fault, it's that it's too short. There are about a dozen characters we'd like to see examined in more depth.Watching this, I marveled at how comparatively normal my own life really is.
Teenagers can watch this movie and come away thinking that maybe their parents aren't really all that weird after all :-)An important point to ponder, though. The characters in this story didn't come to these points in their lives overnight. Everything that's gone wrong went wrong through a slow process over the years.Every person who sees AMERICAN BEAUTY will come away saying, well, that's not my life. That was interesting but it couldn't happen in my state, my town, my neighborhood, my house. Look closer.
Stylish, sexy, and special
posted on 30 Aug 2009A couple days ago, I saw an advance screening of the movie "American Beauty". It is an amazing film. The ending of the movie is intentionally given away in the opening minute, which really threw me at first. But it actually makes the rest of the film more powerful by continuing to keep you on your toes as you await a certain character's fate. Basically, American Beauty is the story of a family that is pretty darn disfunctional, but is really not all that much different than many families in suburban America.The movie features a remarkable performance by Kevin Spacey. He is gonna get an Oscar nomination for it, I have no doubt. The physical and emotional changes his character undergoes are just stunning. I was also very impressed with youngster Thora Birch, who shows that a slight smile and no makeup can be beautiful and sexy in a way that the perfect blonde bombshells from Hollywood could never imagine. Annette Benning has a sex scene that is among the funniest I have ever seen.The direction is fantastic. Very stylized and artistic. In one particular scene were Kevin Spacey is dreaming, check out the way he blinks (you will know what I mean when you see it), it is a detail that could easily have been glossed over, but shows me how careful the people behind this film were about crafting it. It is not a movie for everyone. If you are only into escapism you probably won't enjoy it because it is not a simple film and it not exactly uplifting all the time. I does deserve its R rating as it has a little bit of nudity and plenty of sexual talk/swearing, but all of that stuff is far from gratuitous and really works well within the plot. There is also a spot of violence and blood, but again, it is absolutly neccessary to the story. Mostly, the movie is funny and insightful.Bottom line, I'd be willing to bet that you will not be sorry you saw this one. It is the rare film these days that is actually worth the price of admission.
Not a rose by far
posted on 30 Aug 2009By reading the comments that have been posted on and about this movie, one would assume going in to expect, perhaps, a new "Citizen Kane," "The Godfather," "Braveheart," some type of new form of film that would inspire. Rather, it is merely a new director's attempt to run mainstream film noir by using contemporary debates.The film is centered around the character played by Spacey as a management level, middle-aged man, working his way through a mid-life crisis. His wife, Bening, is focused completely on her job and gives and takes everything within the family. Rounding out the family is a teenager who seems to be a normal teenager by today's standards; moody, unstable and on drugs.The film follows one year of theirs lives and the interactions, which are lengthy and very withdrawn. It seems that Bening read the script the morning of filming and her mind was elsewhere. Spacey plays his role well; unfortunately the role is written poorly and gives off a horrible sense of his having to adapt to this throughout the movie.To judge this film as "one of the year's best" is extremely narrow minded. It seems that every film totes a "thumbs-up" on their trailers but few live up to these prophecies; this is no exception. American Beauty is rather Ugly.
A look at the American family of the 90's.
posted on 30 Aug 2009AMERICAN BEAUTY is one of those rare films that is shot following a screenplay, yet the way the film was made, at times you think it was real. It's a movie that looks at the typical American family of the 1990's, which is usually disfunctional. And it also helps the viewer find the "hidden" beauties in life that not many people see or they're just too busy to see.
Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a employee at a advertising company who feels that his life has come to a dead-end. Lester tells the viewer that his life is empty, and the only excitement he gets everyday is when he "pleasures" himself while in the shower. Annette Benning plays his wife, Carolyn Burnham, a real estate agent who wants life to be perfect, aperfect family, a perfect marriage, a perfect job, and a perfect lifestyle.
Unfortunate for Carolyn, only the lifestyle is what Carolyn can do perfect, perhaps too perfect. Thora Birch plays their teenage daughter, Jane. Because of the father that doesn't give her attention, and the mother that wants what's good for the mother, not for herself, she's become alienated among many people at her school, except for her friend Angela (the beautiful Mena Suvari, "Choir Chick" from AMERICAN PIE) and the "freak" who lives next door, Ricky (Wes Bentley).
Angela has the face, body, and attitude of a super-model, she also likes to brag how boys fantasize her. Ricky on the other hand, doesn't know many people and is considered a "freak" by his classmates since his military strict father (played by the always wonderful Chris Cooper) sent him to a mental institution for two years.
It isn't until Lester sees Angela for the first time, that he finally feels alive. He forgot how good life is, and that it should be enjoyed while it lasts. So Lester decides to do things the way he wants to do them, which also includes quitting his job.
This gets Carolyn angry, and the only pleasure she finds is having a affair with a competitor real estate agent (Peter Gallagher). Jane finds her pleasure by getting close to the boy next door, she finds out that he is actually intelligent, and has a good eye on seeing beautiful things that most overlook.
AMERICAN BEAUTY isn't like any film that I have ever seen. Usually a film one have one of these characters in a movie. And usually that one character would be the most intresting person in the movie. But not AMERICAN BEAUTY, all of the characters are intresting, and they are all unique in a different way. I found AMERICAN BEAUTY to be a masterpiece when it comes to character study, these are very different and complex characters. Yet, when it comes to describing the plot, it's just a story about different people, there really isn't much of a plot. It isn't complex or thick, like L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, PULP FICTION, and CITIZEN KANE. Yet that doesn't make it a bad movie, it's excellent! It's still worth watching. I'm guessing that people complain that many films today have character's which are just cardboard and phony. You won't get any phonies in AMERICAN BEAUTY, all of them seem very real, which is why I found this to be one of the best films of the year! ***** (out of five)
a good movie but a little artsy
posted on 30 Aug 2009I am not one who likes artsy critically acclaimed movies but this one was not bad as Kevin Spacey and Annette benning are 2 of my favourite actors, I think that saved the movie from being totally worthless. Worth a see but its not a 10 and should not be #7 on the top 250 as it does not compare to movies like the shawshank or Shindlers list at all.
Middlebrow elegy
posted on 30 Aug 2009This debut feature by the director Sam Mendes and the screenwriter Alan Ball seems to move people deeply--it's a haunting elegy for lives of quiet desperation to some. The hero, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a middle-aged wage slave who wakes up one day with a new slant on life. His wife (Annette Bening) is a success-crazed, sexless android more obsessed with her pruning shears and her garden of ripe red roses than the conjugal bed. His job at a media magazine, he finds, consists largely of "masking my contempt for my superiors." And his daughter is as sullen and insulated as a hedgehog, filled with recrimination for her absentee-landlord parents. The joy of springtime only arrives in the form of the daughter's best friend--a snooty blond cheerleader (Mena Suvari) onto whom Lester projects lusty fantasies: he imagines her popping her training bra, and an avalanche of ripe red rose petals pours out. In this seemingly ordinary girl, if nowhere else, Lester finds a way to make his drab life into a Rose Bowl parade.As directed by Mendes, in the underlining style of early Mike Nichols, AMERICAN BEAUTY has the bland but polished-to-a-gleam appearance of Quality Television. It's like a serious one-hour drama's Emmy submission. Alan Ball was previously a writer for CYBILL, and has a new series debuting called OH, GROW UP!, and the movie suggests the pitfalls of trying to construct a tragic dimension onto characters who are conceived in sitcom terms. Ball and Mendes want to have it both ways--they want characters as huggable and familiar as sitcom characters, but they also want to haunt us with the inevitability of their collapse, in the manner of one of the Coen brothers' what-fools-these-mortals-be noir scenarios. (Ball's script would be better served by the arctic detachment of the Coens' style in FARGO.)The movie sets up a series of dissatisfied suburban characters of different ages, including the most successfully drawn of the lot, a steel-plated teenage video artist with a savage Marine for a dad (well played by Chris Cooper), who is like a Victorian aesthete with the pressurized manner of a Vulcan. As this level-headed kid--surely an idealized self-portrait by Ball, the artist as the ultimate cool cucumber--the newcomer Wes Bentley gives a vivid, straight-shooting performance that's as refreshing as a faceful of cold aftershave. But as the shlubb hero Lester, Kevin Spacey seems incapable of conveying the sleepy depression of a very ordinary guy. Spacey is all subterfuges and subtext--that's the tricky delight of him as an actor. He makes the audience feel they're eavesdropping on his secretest, dirtiest thoughts. But he seems to have been cast here to make certain things about Lester questionable without having to state the questions outright, and the sight of him leering at a cute teenage girl is far creepier than Jeremy Irons' quivering in LOLITA. (Spacey's one-on-one scenes with Bentley have far more crackle.) Mendes' favorite acting style seems derived from a boffo Broadway show: he likes actors who illustrate emotions rather than being bulldozed by them. The whole movie feels overrehearsed, tidy. (Conrad Hall's cinematography makes diagrammable points.)You can see why the big cheese behind this movie, Steven Spielberg, responded to the material: Lester is like a Joe Sixpack hero in a Spielberg movie put through "dark" and "harrowing" paces in the clearest, most digestible way. After the filmmakers set up the characters, there's nothing left except to watch them hang out for an hour, and then wait to find out who will precipitate the tragic outcome. It's telling of the thinness of the movie's conception that the one character who never gets to become three-dimensional is Annette Bening's Caroline; even her moments of yearning and pleasure are cartoony, James L. Brooksish. The movie is as trapped in its need to please, to be "presentable," as the harpie Caroline is.All this said, the movie has stayed with me hours after seeing it. The sticking power of the picture, I think, is in Wes Bentley's character--his helplessness before his awe at the video images he records. He's the one person in the movie who genuinely doesn't care what other people think of him, and his mixture of ineffable loneliness and determination is affecting. With no irony intended, Ball suggests that the way out of hell for the characters young enough to escape is to flee to New York City.The thought that bohemian life in New York might not be its own rose-lined prison may be the funniest thing in the movie.
Simply the best movie about modern life that I have ever seen.
posted on 30 Aug 2009In the last 2 weeks I have seen 3 movies...The Wood, American Beauty, and Three Kings. I can only say WOW, WOW, and WOW! All three movies were worth watching but American Beauty is an amazing accomplishment. Basically its moral is that what is on the surface often is not what is below. Great acting, interesting story line, no dull moments...entertainment at its best. I give it a 10.
Red is the dominant color of American Beauty
posted on 30 Aug 2009I am sorry not to be specific about the story, the characters, the set design and the music. So many good articles have already been written on these subjects. I would like to insist on a detail - a way to thank the director and his team for their superb work.
When you close you eyes, after the screening of American Beauty, what you see in your mind is "red". Red is the dominant color of this film: red are the roses, the petals of roses and also red is the blood of a killed person. Light Red is also the wall of bricks in front of the plastic bag is flying. Red is the desire of this adolescent, red is the background of the dream, red is the color of life - the blood. Red is the tempo of all this film. Red is the red line of desire: life desire, sexual desire.It's an impressive first film which the way to direct is much better than the script. The script is intelligent but already done many times about middle-class in suburb. The director adds
a visual finesse which surpass the caricatur and gives to the characters and the story a lightness and a deepess which are poetic.PS: please change quickly the trailer which is vulgar and boring because it insists on the comedy side of the movie and not at all on the finesse and poetry of the characters. With this trailer, I was not interested to see the film: it looks like so many other movies of this type of stories. But after I read the article in The New York Times "A Wunderkind Discovers the Wonders of Film" Sep. 12,99 - I desire to see the movie because Mr. Sam Mendes speaks so well about his work on this film, so simply and directly that I was moved and interested to see what he could have done
Not Worth a 9.3
posted on 30 Aug 2009This is an expertly filmed, acted, and directed film, but the script is lacking. Why? Because the movie is a complex tale about a group of people living in suburbia. A simple setting is ideal for showing the deep underlyings of society, but we should care about the characters. All the characters in this movie are freaks. They're violent or mean, and you really don't care for any of them. You don't feel sympathy, and half the time you're afraid one of them is going to just flip out and kill everyone. The movie is too graphic for it's own good. The violence and non-stop sex related material are enough to get the point across without the excessive drug use as well. This movie has tremendous performances and the best filming you are likely to ever see, but don't expect a nice movie to see a Sunday afternoon. Instead, plan to see a disturbing and brutal look into the lives of a bunch of basically horrible people.
Could be the best movie of the year.
posted on 30 Aug 2009And there were a lot of great ones this year. I will also say something even (possibly) bolder--that Kevin Spacey gives the performance of his career. And all us movie geeks know that is saying a LOT, given this man's past roles, and his talent. I used to think he was overrated as an actor. Then I figured OK, I see what all the fuss is about. Now, he's up there with my favorite actors of all time, with James Woods, Steve Buscemi, Robert Deniro...probably in the top 5. I was lucky enough to see a free screening this afternoon and boy, am I glad I had the privilege. In fact, this review might not even be that coherent- it's one of those movies that blows you away so much that you have trouble even putting your feelings into words. The plotline sounds trite when you first describe it (it did to me when I first heard about it), Spacey plays a man who describes himself as a loser, with Annette Bening as his horrible, shrewish, self-absorbed, pathetic b*tch of a wife. His daughter is not all that likeable either, despite the fact that you can understand why she turned out this way, with her as a mother. Just when you think you've met the most dysfunctional family in the world outside of "Happiness", you find out about the family who just moved in next door. At first, the strange son seems like the most messed-up member of their brood, but after you get to meet his ex-military, abusive, homophobic, terrifying father and his withdrawn, sad, headcase mother, you realize he is the most normal member of the household by far. Then, the filmwriters toss in Kevin Spacey's lustful obsession with his daughter's sexkitten cheerleader friend, which trust me, is a lot more fun, entertaining, and amusing than it sounds when you read about it. Soon, he is having the most entertaining, amusing midlife crisis ever seen in the history of cinema. He just doesn't give a ***k about what he does or says anymore, and you only wish you could get away with doing the things he does.I found myself laughing out loud in this movie so many times, most of it horrified, amazed laughter at what is happening and the things that are coming out of the character's mouths, especially Spacey's. He had at least a dozen lines that had every member of the audience in hysterics and actual applause and cheers. I can't say enough good things about this movie. You think, after the first five minutes, that you know how the movie will end. Well, Spacey's opening narrative does give it away, but trust me, the events unfold in a way that you will NEVER see coming. You will swear you can see what a character is going to do next, what violent or self-destructice act they will commit, but you turn out to be wrong.Without getting too pretentious here, the movie lives up to it's theme/tagline of "...look closer". THe characters are not what they seem, up until the end, and even then they surprise you. At least two characters that you are POSITIVE you have figured out, do or say something that turns all your preconceptions of them upside down, while making your jaw drop, and your heart ache. You will leave the movie with a smile, though, and that is maybe what I expected least of all.Words just cannot do this movie justice. See it for yourself.
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an above average, but unfocused, movie
posted on 30 Aug 2009When I stepped into the theater to see American Beauty, I must admit I was a bit skeptical. Whenever a large mass of people urges me to run to the theater and view a film, my first instinct is to run in the other direction. For this particular film, I resisted the urge. I must say I'm glad I did.A synopsis of the film can be found in others' comments. Hence, I will forego the summary and cut to the chase. American Beauty is only moderately Beautiful. The film is not a profound comment on American society. Neither is it a well-focused, original piece of art. What American Beauty is, however, is a collection of beautifully wrought moments created by the union of actor and director.Listening to the words of the film, one feels that the writer is trying to tell several stories at once. Sure, this kind of writing can pull awe from any audience, of the wow-I-can't- believe-he-got-so-many-things-into-one-movie variety, but the same can be said for special effects artists who manage to effect a bridge explosion and a monster's foot in the same movie. As audience members, do we seek breadth or depth?If you seek breadth, this movie is right up your alley. Not only does it tackle unhappiness in the workplace, it ties it in with marital degeneration, gays in the military, drug dealing, teenage sex/high school angst, and sexual power, but it ties it all together with the uber-concept of "Beauty." It's a pity that all these cliches don't add up to some larger "whole" that communicates something to the viewer. Indeed, the attempt to do this seems harried and last-minute.There are some good moments, as I said. Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey are superb, and the teen actors do a wonderful job of fulfilling the roles simply, without Hollywood "emotion." For all the good acting and good direction, though, I wasn't watching a movie; I was simply eating a "scene salad."