This film received a lot of hype and I felt it only natural that I should see it and boy am I glad I did.
The film’s main character is a typical dad and magazine worker Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who drops out of his soon-to-be-downsized job, by insulting and blackmailing the divisional manager, he then regresses into drug use, burger-flipping and girl-chasing. Meanwhile, Lester’s rather ’poor at her job’ wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) starts an adulterous affair with her rival and local real estate king Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) and daughter Jane (Thora Birch) starts a obsessive, but sweet affair with Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), the rather weird drug-dealer and video voyeur next door.
The movie sails along on its great, often harsh jokes, delivered brilliantly by both Spacey and Bening. Yet it’s been designed and shot with quite outstandingly beautiful imagery, especially the lustful dream visions, which includes rose petals, they can only be described as breathtaking. You would probably never know that this was Mendes’ directorial debut in a feature film.
The ’’American Beauty’’ of the title, could first be likened to the blonde haired cheerleader: Jane’s best high-school friend Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari). Angela is such a stereotypical suburban high school girl, and her first cheerleading routine fills Lester with such dreamy visions, that he begins pursuing her for a sexual encounter, even working out in his garage to trim and tone his flabby body. Angela spends time talking to Lester casually, of her wide sexual experience, which she knows arouses him.
Mysterious Ricky, keeps watching and filming Jane from across the yard. Ricky is played in a manner that deliberately recalls movie psychos, but he has a kind of demeanour that you warm to, and feel sympathetic to. A pot dealer and peeping tom, he is also the bullied son of a tantrum-throwing ex-Marine dad (Chris Cooper) and the kid Lester, foolishly, would like to become.
Kevin Spacey is perhaps the perfect actor for Lester -- and Lester may be his perfect role. His great smirking, undeniable wit and his gift for just great ’not over the top’ acting is superb and he makes Lester cool and funny. And he’s almost matched by the quite breathtaking performance by Annette Bening as his neurotic wife Carolyn, her bedroom scene with Peter Gallagher’s Buddy Kane is perhaps classic.
The younger members of the cast show us their great acting talents to, Mostly thanks to perhaps an excellent script to work with. If there are flaws in the cast, it is perhaps the gay couple that live next to the Burham’s played by Sam Robards and Scott Bakula and their brooding opposite number, Ricky’s tormented homophobic dad (Chris Cooper). But it’s perhaps not the actors’ fault, these roles are written as clichés.
’American Beauty’, is, in my opinion, basically all about the American Dream going rotten and families falling apart. And it does have a definite appeal, the confidence and flow of the acting and gorgeous images stand out. And watching this film, you will need full concentration, if you turn it off and come back you will perhaps miss it’s appeal. But if your prepared to sit and watch all the way through, then you will definitely be able to find something to interest you in this.