AMERICAN BEAUTY (2000)
Directed by Sam Mendes Written by Alan Ball
Starring: Kevin Spacey & Annette Bening, Mena Suvari, Thora Birch, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher,
Chris Cooper, Wes Bentley
Music by Thomas Newman
Cinematography by Conrad L. Hall
Genre: Comedy / Drama
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Rating: R for sexuality, language, violence & drug content.
Tagline: " ...look closer."
... dry humour...
"The worst thing anyone can be is normal."
ending ... takes the easy
way out...
... bites deep...
... satire...
...horrible ending...
... compelling drama...
...well acted...
...
... pitch black humour...
...intense
...
...a film of 'moments'...
...slow beginning...
... sombre tone...
... full of
great visual
symbolism...
... involving...
FILM REVIEWS
...brave and controversial...
... what a
letdown..
... edgily
hilarious...
... unsettling,
dark...
...not kinky...
FILM REVIEWS
TA
TASKS: With your group:
A. Draw up a table with two columns headed 'Liked' and 'Didn't Like'. Skim read your
page of review/s. List words and phrases that convey the reviewer's opinions in the
appropriate column of your table.
B. Write a statement summarising the reviewer's overall opinion.
C. Write a statement, based on the information in the review/s, saying what seems to
be the main theme of the film.
D. List important examples and ideas about the film that you could use in your film study
notes.
E. On your Review Toolbox sheet, list the features of review writing that are evident in
these review/s.
F. After you have seen the film, say whether you agree or disagree with each of the
comments in the callouts above, and give reasons for your opinions.
You will be asked to report back to the class for some of these tasks.
1
American Beauty film review
Satire is best when it has bite. This deserved winner of multiple Golden Globes (and tipped for a clutch of Oscars
in 2000), bites deep. It also has class acts in Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey, stuck in another dysfunctional
middle class marriage. Spacey is at his lugubrious best as Lester Burnham, who feeling smothered by a
monotonous job, a henpecking wife and daughter who he hardly knows - spectacularly jacks in his career and
embarks on a second teenage.
Annette Bening, a real estate agent, is uptight enough as it is. But when her husband decides to downshift to
flipping burgers, blows a pile of his redundancy money on a ridiculously laddish sports car and lounges about the
house smoking grass, the pressure cooker seems close to exploding.
Added to this equation, Lester has a wild obsession for one of his daughter's best friends a cheerleading, blonde
"american beauty" - who is only too aware - and pleased - that Lester is salivating after her. This situation gives
scope for some gorgeous, erotic fantasy sequences as Lester's imagination soars on thoughts of her nubile young
physique. It also encourages him to work out, jog and generally get in shape. Meanwhile, his daughter, Jane, is
developing a friendship with the boy, Ricky, next door, a voyeuristic loner with an anally retentive ex-marine
father. Ricky spends much of his time secretly filming the neighbours. You're never quite sure which household is
more odd.
Alan Ball's script taps into the heart of the modern suburban malaise of boredom and disconnectedness, laced
with pitch black humour. Considering this is his first feature, Sam Mendes direction is supremely confident and
mature. The characters though flawed, remain sympathetic and real. One to look out for.
Review by Rebort
2
© 2001 www.iofilm.co.uk and its contributors. All rights reserved.
Even the title itself, American Beauty, is making a statement about life and normalcy. Whether its being
satiric, that nothing is normal and/or perfect or that everything about life is awe-inspiring, depends upon your own
point-of-view. And that's what so great about this film -- it doesn't lecture or judge, but only provides us with
different perspectives. It lets the audience make up its own mind as to what is right or wrong, normal or crazy,
beautiful or not.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a man who lives the ideal American fantasy: career, family, house in the burbs.
But beyond that facade, he is a man whose life is about to experience the ultimate mid-life crisis. He continues his
dead marriage to wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) for their daughter's sake, so they'll look normal to the outside
world. Lester admits, "Our marriage is just for show - a commercial for how normal we are, when we're anything
but."
Lester gets a libidinous wake-up call in the form of the worldly, flirtatious Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari) whom he
encounters after a cheerleading demonstration. Just the presence of Angela and that she leads him on, makes
Lester an easy target for some radical changes in his life. He quits his job, sells his car and returns to the
pleasures of days gone by: working out, smoking dope, and flipping burgers at the local fast-food chain.
Carolyn Burnham also appears to be living the dream. She takes pride in her garden and gleefully carries on
conversations as if she hasn't a care in the world. But, according to Lester, this is all a sham for she has grown to
place a higher value on "status" than on family. As Lester states, "She has turned into a "bloodless, moneygrubbing freak" and has no time for any form of intimacy. Underneath, Carolyn is masking her own mid-life drama
and acts upon it after watching Lester's radical change in lifestyle. She "discovers" herself after several motel
room romps with real estate biz competitor, Buddy "The King" Kane (Peter Gallagher), and takes up gunshooting. Their daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), thinking both parents have gone completely off the deep end, finds
solace in the arms of the boy next door, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) -- who is anything but normal.
And if you think the Burnham's have problems -- just wait until you meet Ricky's parents!
What might appear as nothing more than the chronicles of everyday family life in America, American Beauty
shows us there is far greater dramatic potential in our daily existence than we might have ever imagined. It shows
us a world in which each day, no matter how mundane, is a tragic and beautiful affair. Ricky points this out to
Jane, as he videotapes almost everything he sees, and shows us how to look at such ordinary or tragic events
with a fresh perspective. [You might not look at a flapping bag in the breeze the same ever again].
American Beauty is also about the emotional numbness that grips us as we grow older and more set in our daily
ways. We find refuge in routine and as time moves forward, the thought of change, even minuscule, can become
terrifying -- even life threatening. While "suburbia" might be the American pipe dream, it has become a twisted
nightmare of unfulfilled aspirations and shattered dreams for many. Because of society and the social status we
find ourselves in, we find it necessary to keep up appearances. On the outside ... we might wear a smile but our
true self (below the facade) conceals a breeding ground for dysfunction, distress, and deception. Happiness is
replaced with stability and the artificial tranquility that is fabricated through this monotony of redundancy is what
causes our false satisfaction. In this film, we see how the characters break free from their comatose existence
and what rewards (and forfeitures) it brings by daring to "live" again.
American Beauty, the first feature film directed by Sam Mendes (who has an extensive background in theater)
covers every aspect of dysfunction: stalking, voyeurism, adultery, forbidden love, homophobic rage, and murder.
Mendes weds a compelling drama with black comedy keeping the film's pace brisk as it careens toward a
cataclysmic ending. A bit of a slow beginning, this film is intense. Give it a "4."
© Terrence J. Brady
American Beauty
I can’t help but find that it’s always so much harder reviewing ‘critically acclaimed’ films. For one thing,
expectations are far higher than usual, and the possibility of disappointment lurks around every corner. So, the
question is, does American Beauty deserve the plaudits it has so far received. Is it, as the Golden Globes would
have you believe, the best American film of last year?
3
Well, yes and no. Because American Beauty is a film of ‘moments’. And some work, and some, unfortunately
don’t. The plot is the simplest thing about the movie. A forty-something American man (Spacey) slowly realises
how unhappy he is with his life, family and job, and so set’s about changing it. He loses his job, but blackmails his
boss into giving him a year’s severance pay, starts smoking dope, working out, and fantasising about his
daughter’s best friend. And, surprisingly, through these actions, he, briefly, finds some kind of happiness.
But the film doesn’t simply concentrate on Spacey’s attempts to improve his routinely tedious life. It also focuses
on Spacey’s own family – his daughter’s attempt to find love, yet to conform to her friend’s expectations at the
same time, and his wife’s affair with a real estate agent. But it doesn’t stop there, also spending much time
exploring the lives of the family next door, a repressed Colonel and his family. And this is possibly to the film’s
detriment. Spacey shines when he is on screen, yet when the film concentrates on the daughter, the pace slows,
and interest is soon lost. The same applies to Annette Bening’s character – when on screen with Spacey she
capture’s the audience’s interest, but in the scenes where Spacey is absent, she becomes far less interesting.
So far this review has been a little negative, but this is only in response to the over the top acclaim it has thus far
received. Because much of the movie is, quite simply, superb. The script cuts and sparkles throughout, and the
quality of acting is excellent. Spacey’s gradual ‘growing down’ is a joy to watch, his daughter’s attempts at
understanding not only her family, but life in general, are bittersweet, but always involving. It’s shot sumptuously,
the camera delivering each and every minute detail of American middle class life, and, in it’s liberated attitude
towards drugs, sex, and homosexuality, the film does suggest at least some optimism for society.
American Beauty is a distant cousin to Todd Solondz’s ‘Happiness’. It takes a detailed look at the lives of
‘average’ americans, and, unsurprisingly, finds them to be confused, complicated, and pessimistically, depressed.
But it’s not as good as Solondz’s movie. It’s not quite as intelligent as it thinks it is, and whilst it provokes thought,
it fails to offer or suggest any answers. For it is the ending which I have the most problems with.
(Stop reading here if you don’t wish to know the ending of the movie – Ed.).
Because it takes the easy way out. Spacey’s character is killed pointlessly by a next door neighbour. So we never
get to see if he had made the right choices, or if his ‘mid-life crisis’ was to seriously destroy his life. By killing the
narrator we are given an ending in which his actions cannot be judged adequately because we don’t know what
the outcome of them would have been. Sure, in the final voiceover he seems positive enough, almost glad of his
death, but if he had lived, well, then I think the movie would have been far more interesting.
So, to conclude, do see this movie. It’s full of exhilarating, innovative moments. It’s well acted, scripted and shot.
It’s just not quite as good as everyone has made out. If you haven’t seen Happiness yet, rent it immediately. Then
catch American Beauty when, or if, you have a spare night free.
Alex Finch.
AMERICAN BEAUTY
American Beauty, directed by British theater director Sam Mendes (Cabaret, The Blue Room)
and written by Alan Ball, is a film which focuses on a suburban-American family, portraying its
characters' dysfunctional relationships as a direct symptom of their dissenting conceptions of beauty.
As its title implies, the film begs the question "What is American beauty?" and without providing a
concrete answer, it explores the endemic problems haunting many contemporary families:
consumerism, unemployment, drugs, peer pressure, loneliness, discrimination and violence.
4
American Beauty opens by having its protagonist, Lester Burnham (a convincing Kevin Spacey)
declare: "I'm 42 years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet. In a way, I'm
dead already". In this simple manner the film establishes its somber tone, its dry sense of humor, its
non-linear narration, and its character's fate. Having revealed the fatal outcome, what follows is a brief
view of the final days of Lester's frustrated life; of his wife Carolyn's (Annette Bening) systematic
belittling of him and all things associated with him; and of their daughter's (Thora Birch) overpowering
contempt towards both of them.
Coupling and/or contrasting these characters' conflicts with those of their repressed neighbors (Ricky
Fitts and his ex-Marine dad, played by Wes Bentley and Chris Cooper) and their sexually uninhibited
peers (Angela and Buddy King, played by Mena Suvari and Peter Gallagher), American Beauty
discovers those discordant elements that lead to infatuation, adultery, murder, and --lastly-- selfreflection.
5
AMERICAN BEAUTY FILM REVIEW
by Yazmin Ghonaim
The stunning film debut from Sam Mendes (who won one of the film's many Oscars for his troubles).
One of the most startling, brilliant pictures to come out of a major studio in many years
Kevin Spacey gives a trophy-grabbing, barnstorming performance as mid-life crisis victim Lester
Burnham, who copes with his middle age rut and asexual marriage (to Annetter Bening's marvellously
uptight socialite) by reverting back to all manner of peculiar adolescent behaviour; he quits his job in
spectacular fashion, starts smoking pot supplied by his weirdo neighbour (Wes Bentley) and begins
chasing his daughter's jailbait buddy (Mena Suvari).
An edgily hilarious and marvellously astute portrayal of the American dream gone horribly wrong, with
unilaterally superb dialogue, direction and performances from the leads (not forgetting Chris Cooper's
terrifyingly militaristic neighbour and Alison Janney as his downtrodden, almost silent wife).
6
"American Beauty" is a very American film. Perhaps, the most important American film to
come around in a long time. It premiered in Los Angeles a few weeks' back to rave reviews. Most of
these reviews contained words such as "kinky,' "off beat,' "hilarious dark comedy," "off the wall," etc.
Even during the stock publicity interviews that actors have to endure, these comments were not well
received. One of these unthinking interviewers was stunned when Kevin Spacey lashed out at the word
"kinky" as having nothing to do with the intent of the film. Even the advertising for "American Beauty"
leads one to believe that the film is about a father in mid-life crisis, lusting after his teenage daughter's
blonde and sexy cheerleader friend. This situation is a small sub plot that has little to do with the more
meaningful story of Lester Burnham.
The film is not kinky, offbeat, or even a dark comedy. There is little that is funny in the film. You find
yourself laughing, in part, to relieve the mounting tension. "American Beauty" is, in fact, a stinging
indictment of the American value system that provokes, disturbs and finally hits a painful nerve well
hidden beneath the façade of the American dream.
Director Sam Mendes succeeds all too well in this unsettling, dark masterpiece. During the last
moments Mendes affirms life, beauty, and leaves the audience with a wake up call evoking an
emotional moment of profound insight into our own mortality.
Lester Burnham (Spacey) is an average guy who bought into the American dream. He has a good job,
a nice house, an attractive, independent wife (Annette Bening) who happily tools around town in her
shiny SUV selling real estate, and a rebellious (aren't they all?), teenage daughter (Thora Birch). Lester
is not happy. He informs us of that fact at the beginning. He's also going to die soon. He tells us that
too. From the beginning of American Beauty one has an unsettling feeling that continues to deepen as
the story of Lester's last days on earth unfolds. Mendes pulls out all the stops. We are hit with humor,
terror, edgy, sharp dialogue, violent relationships, beauty, sex, and truth. His direction is often subtle
and at times obviously symbolic, yet it always punctuates the drama with great style. Conrad Hall,
director of Photography, adds much to these scenes. Many are so well done that they should be
hanging in museums. One particularly effective scene is the family dining table, slightly elongated, with
the mother at one end and the father at the other. In between these strangers is a lone, lost teenage
daughter hopelessly isolated in the middle. It is immediately obvious that these two people no longer
share any meaningful relationship. It is a family of strangers occupying the same house and that fact
becomes the only unifying force. This is a family already dead. But, as Lester says in his narration, "It's
never too late to get it back"!
The scene in which Lester shares a joint with a teenage waiter in the alley behind his wife's catered
party is as creepy as it is brilliant. No one will ever forget the plastic bag dancing among brown leaves
in a swirling fall wind against a bright red brick wall. There are many special moments as Lester's
journey to get back on track proceeds. As uncomfortable at times as this film is to watch, it makes a
powerful statement. Lester surely dies at the end but he is a happy fulfilled man.
With its American theme, it will be interesting to see how the box office will do when it's released
throughout the world. My guess is that Lester Burnham is "everyman" and his quest to remove life's
chains will involve anyone caught up in the madness of this dying millennium. Identification should be
no problem. Annette Bening and Kevin Spacey performed the defining roles of their careers. The
strong supporting cast is equally impressive. This is Oscar worthy material. Congratulations to
DreamWorks for allowing Mendes, his cast and crew to do their thing. I don't use the term masterpiece
too often. With "American Beauty," it applies.
Guido Mezzabotta Cine Philes Archives
7
American Beauty
It's won Golden Globes. It's poised for Oscar success. And despite a few flaws, Sam Mendes's film debut is
exhilaratingly intelligent, writes Peter Bradshaw
Friday January 28, 2000
The Guardian
The reputation of American Beauty, the cinematic debut of the young British stage director Sam Mendes, has
compounded at an extraordinary, exponential
rate since its US release. Initially regarded as a witty, literate ensemble piece to be cautiously compared to Ang
Lee's Ice Storm, it has become a gigantic screen achievement, now arriving here hailed as the first bang-up
classic of the new decade, garlanded with Golden Globes and soon (bet your shirt on it) Oscars.
I felt it made a stunning impact at the London film festival in November and although it does not quite withstand
the scrutiny of a second viewing, containing as it does elements of redundancy and naivety, it is certainly a film of
incredible flair and formal, compositional brilliance. Mendes has assembled his actors like an extremely classy
theatrical cast, and, with the help of Alan Ball's terrific screenplay, conjured from them superbly modulated
complementary performances, crowned by Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening as the unhappiest middle-aged
couple in all suburbia.
Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a middle-aged ad executive who hates his job and hates his life, whose wife and
daughter loathe him, and for whom jerking off in the shower is the only pleasurable experience of the day. (At
night, this indulgence is covertly extended to the matrimonial bed next to his sleeping wife.)
His daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is moody, mopey, grungey and secretly saving up for breast augmentation
surgery, of which she has no obvious need, as Mendes later reveals in a scene in which Jane removes her top for
the benefit of Ricky, the boy next door who is obsessed with filming her with his Sony DV camera. It is one of
many erotic ironies in this picture, through which voyeurism is wilfully confused with rapture.
But the real head-case is Carolyn, a failing real-estate saleswoman and Lester's uptight wife. This is an
outstanding study in unhappiness from Annette Bening, who gives her best performance since The Grifters.
Bening's bright, chipper keeping-up-appearances smile causes her crow's feet to crinkle and clench almost
audibly. It is a mask of dysfunction and despair; and there is a compelling scene in which she fails to sell a tatty
family home because of its inadequately tropical "lagoon-style" pool. After the contemptuous would-be buyers
have left, she bursts into hysterical, self-loathing tears, while slapping herself across the face: "Shut up! Shut up!
You're weak!"
They all are. Peeping, wanking, sobbing and yearning, Mendes's characters and their weirdo neighbours drift
through a bright suburban moonscape. This is the arena for their hidden lives, and secret, unacknowledged
longings - erotic and otherwise - which manifest themselves outwardly in little jolts of disorientation and
inattention, the suburban moment when, as Nabokov put it in Lolita, one accidentally sweeps the refrigerator and
defrosts the driveway.
But all this creepy serenity is blown away when Lester uproariously flowers into a liberating mid-life crisis. He
quits his job; he smokes premium-quality dope bought from Ricky and conceives an obsession with Angela (Mena
Suvari), Jane's unbearably blonde and sexy best friend.
All this is managed with magnificent confidence by Mendes, who shows an awe-inspiringly precocious mastery of
technique, in part due to canny reliance on his veteran cinematographer Conrad L Hall. Opinion will divide on the
dream-setpieces in American Beauty which - a bit artificially - amplify the roses of Carolyn's immaculate garden
into the film's central poetic motif. As visionary enactments of erotic languour, they are stagey, pedantic, and a bit
soft-core, but certainly entertaining and ingenious.
American Beauty has its limits, and its flaws. As a journey into the troubled heart of American suburbia, it has
nothing like the power and conviction of, say, Todd Solondz's Happiness or Alexander Payne's Election. Actually,
there is a faint trace of saccharine here. When Ricky shows us an 11-minute video he has made of a plastic bag
blowing in the wind, we are apparently invited to endorse his glassy-eyed assessment of it as a wonderful
epiphany of natural beauty. So much beauty in the world, he says, that his heart almost collapses.
Yet Ricky is, after all, supposed to be a drug dealer, who invites Jane to run away with him to New York City,
where they will live on his earnings. This film makes that sound a sweetly romantic, almost bucolic existence. (I
was reminded of a line in Doug Liman's underrated Go: "Yeah, right, he's the good drug dealer...") Moreover,
there is a structural problem in the fact that a scene has been cut from the end, without which neither the precredit sequence, nor the denouement, really make satisfactory sense.
But flaws and all, this is intelligent, exhilarating, effervescent film-making, and a remarkable debut from Sam
Mendes for whom an Academy Award - along with prizes for Spacey and Bening - would now appear to be in
order.
Peter Bradshaw
8
It's been a very depressing week for me. I don't know where to begin: a car wreck last Saturday; waiting in the rain
for a tow truck; spending the entire week wondering what the damage is going to cost, only to find out the car has been
deemed a total loss. I'm in shambles; I have little money to pay the sky-high insurance rates that will elevate as a result of
my unexpected encounter with a telephone pole. I have no way of getting around. I'm having to take a semester or two off
from college- which I love about as much as a cold sore on July 4th- just so that I can find a second job to save up enough
money to find myself an apartment and buy a bicycle. My stomach is tied up in knots that would make a seaman green with
envy. And throughout all of this, I keep asking myself: Why is life such a miserable experience?
And then I revisited "American Beauty"; once, and then again soon after, as a means to find some sort of escape
into a world that is not far from the one in which I live. It's a world where the corporate life is a suffocating plastic bag put
over our heads to try and deprive us of our reason for being; a world in which human emotions are brought to the surface in
the most unique, shocking, fascinating, and unexpected ways. It is a place and time that remains ever-constant in its
relevance to reality: despite the changes that our society consistently undergoes, there is always someone out there who is
dealing with the pressures or hassles of the work force, a failing family life, a repressed lifestyle, and/or the knowledge or
belief that one's own existence is meaningless if not accepted, addressed, and revitalized before it is too late.
We see this is the film's main character, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a man who is "dead already" as he lives
out his ordinary life in middle-class suburbia. An entirely justifiable statement on his part, we watch as he brings himself to
orgasm in a hot shower, dresses for a hopelessly uninspiring day at work, and prepares to face the domineering attitude of
his wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), and the disenchantment of his teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birch). They live in a
pretty common, ordinary fashion, Carolyn spending her days in battle with a rival real estate agent (Peter Gallagher), Jane
sulking around the house ignoring her parents' attempts to get involved with her life, and Lester, in all his meager glory,
doing everything he can to keep himself from throwing his head back and screaming to his heart's content.
In one form or another almost everyone who sees the film will be able to relate to Lester on some level. There are
those who will judge him to be nothing more than an ungrateful, unappreciative loser who fails to realize his good fortune;
but for those who see themselves in some form or another through his uneventful existence, a new understanding will come
to light. Lester is not your typical protagonist in that he leads a double life of sorts: we see this in both his lusting after Jane's
high school friend, Angela (Mena Suvari), who becomes his muse of sorts for getting back into shape and taking control of
his life. And yet, even as he grabs life by the testicles and develops the take-charge attitude he never thought he had in him,
there is always that sense of responsibility to self and others that keeps the movie from being merely an escapist fantasy, and
instead evolves it into something meaningful. We can look at Lester's experiences and realize that he is where he is in life
because of himself. He hates his job because he has allowed it to get the better of him. He is humble and timid around his
wife because he shows no opposition to her tyranny. He worries about Jane because he is above all else her father; in a scene
where he acknowledges the fact that he has not been there for her, there is genuine remorse in his tone that allows us to see
how much he really does care.
But more than just a character study of one man's self-awakening, "American Beauty" is a number of things
besides. It is one of the most visually metaphorical films you're likely to see, with the constant presence of red
foreshadowing the inevitability of the ending, which despite the opening narration's revelation of a sudden event, still
manages to retain its resonance because of the material that builds up to this conclusion. It is a prime example of a director's
ability to convey the overwhelming emotional subtexts of the material with something as simple as a well-placed piece of
music, or a tight close-up of an actor's face. Sam Mendes handles the material with the subtlety that is needed to allow his
actors room to further their roles; this is not a movie about the logistics of a performance, but one in which the performer
becomes the character, and we forget we're watching a movie in the first place. Kevin Spacey is a vision, a blinding, kinetic,
driving force that keeps us riveted throughout the picture. He knows this role, inside and out, and makes it his own.
But above all else, "American Beauty" is simply about life itself. It deals with the issues that so many people are
afraid to confront on a daily basis, and does so in such a way that it will come off as both offensive to some and beautiful to
others, an effect that works in its favor, and makes it a much more gratifying experience. It is unafraid of the unusual, as we
witness in the relationship between Jane and her next-door neighbor, Ricky (Wes Bentley), whose rocky relationship with
his strict Marine father (Chris Cooper) has shaped his outlook on life to recognize beauty in the most unique forms. The film
touches on the issue of homosexuality in very much the same way you would expect in a middle-class neighborhood such as
this: it treats it as a touchy subject, something hush-hush, yet at the same time it tears down the brick wall of ignorance and
exposes what so many people refuse to acknowledge or accept. It's a brave and very controversial move, not necessarily
something unattempted previously so much as it is one of the few times where such material has been handled in a manner
befitting of such weighty issues.
But what is "American Beauty" all about in the end? The search for purpose in a seemingly meaningless existence? The
downward spiral of a life unlived? The struggle to survive the dreariness of conformity and adherence to structure and
balance? In a way, it touches on all three, but more than anything else, the film is a statement, a wake-up call to those who
see it and find themselves relating to these characters in any way, shape, or form. Some will take it as a warning, but I prefer
to think of it as a simple reminder of all the little joys in life, and the knowledge that life is what you make of it. You have
the power to change it, mold it, and shape it as you see fit. As Lester says, "Then I remember to relax, and stop trying to
hold onto it. And then, it flows through me like rain and I feel nothing but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid
little life." I have no car; I have no present outlook for the future. I have my despondency and my regrets, my happiness and
my elation. I have my life, and with this quote in mind, I'm going to start living it. Thank you, Lester.
Copyright @ Hauntnut.com
All Reviews by David Litton
9
American Beauty
Sam Mendes, the director of "American Beauty", has shot a glorious film about a man who gets a life;
what a pity that the screenwriter kills the character off. On the basis of this horrible ending, I'm tempted
to call the movie a thematic mess. But the rest of it is too darn involving. I guess I'll just say that it's
great while it lasts.
The film is a study of two dysfunctional three-member families in suburban Connecticut. Mainly we
follow the Burnhams -- Lester (Kevin Spacey), a depressive loser who writes mindless magazine copy
and lusts after his daughter's best friend Angela (Mena Suvari), Carolyn (Annette Bening), a hideously
perky estate agent whose vernacular of upbeat capitalist platitudes seems to have come from 1980s
self-help tapes, and Jane (Thora Birch), a typically moody teenager. Just moved in next door are the
clan Fitz -- Frank (Chris Cooper), a violent, homophobic colonel in the marine corps, Barbara (Alison
Janney), his senile wife, and young Ricky (Wes Bentley), who makes vast sums of money selling pot
behind his parents' backs.
These are, for the most part, people who refuse to face how disconnected and desperately unhappy
they really are, clinging to societal labels and conventional ideas of propriety and beauty to convince
themselves that things are going fine. Lester and Carolyn don't see themselves as a loveless couple
working jobs they hate, but as productive middle-class earners. Frank would not stand to be called a
bigoted psychopath, because he's officially an American hero, and he'd never admit that Barbara has
gone batty -- after all, she performs her housekeeping tasks efficiently; she must be functioning
perfectly well!
This sounds like ugly and depressing material, but Mendes doesn't try to evoke typical reactions of
disgust from the audience; his camera holds back, viewing things from a sympathetic distance,
emphasising the absurdity of situations rather than their scandal. We're invited to find both pathos and
pantomime humour in behaviour that could have come across as creepy. Lester's infatuation with
Angela is a perfect example -- just look at the scene where he's eavesdropping on her outside Jane's
door, thinks she's on to him and darts away like a child who doesn't want to be caught misbehaving.
It is Lester's conduct throughout "American Beauty" which points to why this movie is worth seeing,
whereas last year's "Happiness" was not. In that movie, the characters just sat and whined about their
miserable lives -- here, Lester sees how easily Ricky gets on with life, and finds himself inspired to
change, to be honest with himself after all these years of blackout. Even if you instinctively find more
happiness in looking at a plastic bag than in buying a silk sofa, the kid quite reasonably points out, then
why go to the trouble of pretending otherwise?
In taking stock of what's important to him, Lester quits his job, starts pumping iron and resolves to be
frank whenever he speaks -- actions that, in practice, most people would think weird, and the signs of
mid-life crisis. But they're healthy for Lester; he's starting to grow as a person. By the end of the movie
he's rejecting Angela's sexual advances; at the beginning, he would never have had the self-control or
even the opportunity.
Spacey is wonderful in this role. There is an enthused glint people get in their eyes when they begin to
re-invent themselves -- he nails it. And pay attention, too, to the subtle way his voice and body
language come across as sluggish at the start of the movie and become progressively cooler. There
are several good performances in "American Beauty", but his is the standout.
It would have been a great film, too, if it had followed through on its ideas, and allowed Lester's
character to develop even further. But instead he is shot dead -- which we're told is going to happen
from the outset, but still doesn't feel right. The point of Lester's self-improvement is to show us how it's
possible to wake up from self-delusion and embrace what touches us. Killing him off implies that life is
meaningless, everyone might as well lead unhappy lives and there's no point trying to work ourselves
out of ruts because we're all doomed anyway. As if this isn't bad enough, the final scenes of the movie
turn into tacky murder mystery, and set up a series of preposterous misunderstandings to give the killer
a motive. What a letdown.
But don't take my word for it. My view is in the minority, and "American Beauty" looks set to win the top
Oscars, having been named best picture of the year by the Online Film Critics Society and at the
Golden Globes. Me, I think it unfolds as a profound masterpiece, then collapses in a muddle of
probably unintentional, certainly unnecessary pessimism. It's as if Aladdin had forgotten how to unleash
the genie, gone nuts and used his lamp to burn himself to death.
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian Waldron-Mantgani