CCC Reviews

American Beauty

Picture your peaceful suburbia. White painted houses, fresh green grass, a mid-sized sedan and an SUV, rose bushes and a white picket fence. Inside a home is well stained wood furnishings, couches, hardwood floor, dining room, kitchen, master and an extra bedroom. But inside this home is an incredibly dysfunctional family.

The plot is very simple, Lester Burnham is your typical 9-5 white middle class worker married to a strong willed real estate agent. Lester is so typical that his life is an entire bore. His daughter is rebellious and resents him and her mother. Lester seems so hopeless that one wonders how this movie can continue. But when Carolyn and Lester attend one of the basketball games where Jane is dancing, Lester sees something that changes his life forever. He catches a glimpse of Jane's friend Angela Hayes. This puts a new perspective upon his life and he finally becomes able to speak his peace. This new found side of him makes him blackmail his company, improve his muscle build and re-start smoking marijuana. 

Aside from the main story of Lester Burnham, there is the main theme of the movie, told through Ricky Fitts. Ricky is the kid that moves in next door to the Burnhams with his parents. He can be immediately noticed because he is constantly video taping Jane. Ricky's hobby is to tape anything that he considers beautiful. His collection is quite extensive but most of the things are no more complex than a plastic bag flying in the wind.

The film is all about inner beauty and getting past the outer facade that all things have. Lester let his inner beauty shine when Angela changed his point of view.

I'll tell you up front, this is absolutely one of the weirdest films I have ever seen. The story is hard to swallow, crude in content and rather disturbing at moments. But it will continue to draw you in. Despite Lester's fantasies of Angela or Carolyn's affair with the Retail King it keeps you wondering where is this all going? It's a very powerful movie and it does what it needs to do, it brings to light the side that many don't see if they were to just take a glance.

Scores for American Beauty
RyoKazama534: - "Quite odd, but it's strangely attracting..."

Cast
Lester Burnham - Kevin Spacey
Carolyn Burnham - Annette Bening
Jane Burnham - Thora Birch
Ricky Fitts - Wes Bentley
Angela Hayes - Mena Suvari
Buddy Kane - Peter Gallagher
Colonel Frank Fitts - Chris Cooper
Barbara Fitts - Allison Janney
Jim Olmeyer - Scott Bakula
Jim "JB" Berkley - Sam Robards
Brad Dupree - Barry Del Sherman

Crew
Director - Sam Mendes
Writer - Alan Ball
Screenplay - Sam Mendes
Producer - Bruce Cohen
Producer - Dan Jinks
Co-Producer - Alan Ball
Co-Producer - Stan Wlodkowsky
Original Music - Thomas Newman
Cinematography - Conrad Hall
Film Editing - Tariq Anwar
Film Editing - Chris Greenbury
Casting - Debra Zane