American Beauty (1999)

Director: Sam Mendes

Story: Alan Ball

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch

Music: Thomas Newman

Time: 121 minutes

Bottom-line: A new perspective of life, love and beauty

In less than a year, I will be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I'm dead already.

Narrated by the lead character, Lester Burnham, Sam Mendes’ debut film, American Beauty is the tale of the lives of two middle-class families in a neighbourhood. The cast consists of Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari and Peter Gallagher. The simplistic story explores several themes like love, sexuality, redemption and beauty.

It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.

Lester Burnham (Spacey) is an advertisement executive, who hates his job and equally despises his marriage to Carolyn (Bening), his neurotic, ambitious wife. Their teenage daughter, Jane (Birch), hates both of them. She hangs around with her friend, Angela (Suvari), who always boasts about how other men lust for her. After watching Angela perform as a cheerleader, Lester also starts fantasising about her, and even starts working out to impress her. Fed up with her marriage to Lester, Carolyn starts to have an affair with her business competitor, Buddy Kane (Gallagher). Meanwhile, the new neighbours include a homophobic father, his catatonic wife, and their teenage son, Ricky Fitts (Bentley), who sells marijuana as a business, and videotapes his surroundings constantly. Various events over the following weeks bring about a change in members of both families.

 

Spacey as Lester (the rose petals are a recurring image
every time Lester fantasises about Angela) 

This isn't life, it's just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living.   

The film’s underlying theme is to discover life. Lester is fed up with his white-collar job, and decides to work out to explore his new-found feelings of sexuality towards Angela, hoping it would rejuvenate his life. He takes steps to live life as he pleases: by smoking pot, taking up a job “with the least amount of responsibility”, and suddenly becoming the dominant one in the family. In the end, he realises that he has been having a good life all along, but he has failed to realise it. Carolyn also hopes for a change in her life, resulting in her affair with Buddy. Jane, initially having no self-esteem, starts seeing herself anew once she hangs out with Ricky. Angela, from being self-centred and egotistic, by the end of the film, comes to terms with reality that she is “ordinary”. Rick’s character is a static one, but through him, the other theme is introduced: that beauty can be seen in everything. It can be in a dead bird, it can be in a plastic bag floating in the wind, or it can be in the eyes of a dead man; he films everything to remember all the beauty in the world surrounding him. It’s surprising in retrospect, when you realise that Ricky’s character remains as is throughout the film, but he changes the nature of everyone around him.

 

Bening as Carolyn

These fetishes and fantasies ultimately lead to the destruction of both the Burnham family and the Fitts family. By the end of the movie, when everyone gets a sense of realisation, it is already too late. As Lester says (to the viewers), “I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry. You will someday.” I liked the humour elements used throughout the film, mainly because of Lester’s change in character; the scene where the Burnhams sit for dinner is darkly hilarious. The cinematography is also a highlight, especially the shots used to show Lester’s fantasies: with the rose petals, the slow-motion camerawork, and the hypnotic music. I also like the way scenes are sometimes shown to us through Ricky’s camera, sometimes directly, and at times, both.

 

Suvari as Angela (left) and Birch as Jane

The acting, by every cast member, is outstanding. Kevin Spacey, with his deadpan demeanour and the sudden bursts of violence and anger, is splendid, and this could well be his finest work till date; he won the Oscar for Best Actor too. Annette Bening, with her hysterics and emotional outbursts, has also done brilliantly. With top-class acting and a thought-provoking story (with a debatable climax), American Beauty must certainly be on your to-watch list.  

Bentley as Ricky 

My Rating: 4/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 88%