AMERICAN BEAUTY A film by Sam Mendes Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper, Mena Suvari, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, and Scott Bakula. Written by Alan Ball
I have lived in suburbia for most of my life. Most of the time I just walk out the door, and walk to my car, and get in and not realize that things are moving around me. Things are actually happening behind me, but I can never see them, because most of the time I really don't care. AMERICAN BEAUTY changed that perception more than anything else. Sam Mendes' astonishing debut is heartwrenching, hysterical, thoughtful, provocative, controversial, and ultimately, the most rewarding and affirming movie of the year. And it very well could be the best movie of 1999.
Lester Burnham (Spacey) is tired. He is tired of the pain he feels at night, tired of the frustration at his family, his work, and at himself. He is not the man of hopes and dreams he once was. He has, through the Reagan Revolution and the age of capitalism, lost his soul, lost it in something in no longer believes in anymore. Lester probably has more in common with Warren Beatty's delightful Jay Billington Bulworth in BULWORTH than any other character ever created. Like Bulworth, Lester is triggered into the spirit of life by a woman.
The fact that she's a 17 year old cheerleader and classmate of Lester's daughter Jane isn't the point, although it's a wickedly funny plot device. The point is Lester's confrontation with beauty, and the beauty that exists in the universe that he's been avoiding for so many years. So, to the dismay of his WASPish wife Carolyn (Bening), he starts to change. He works out. He quits his job. He smokes pot. And he dreams, at night, of Angela (Suvari).
But AMERICAN BEAUTY wouldn't work nearly as well as it does if this was about Lester. It's about the relationships we have with the people in our lives. And those people vary from our family to our neighbors to even people we don't know but with whom we have a certain link to. And all of these are rich, probing characters in AMERICAN BEAUTY: all of these are facets of the American culture that we inhabit. Col. Fitts (Cooper) and his drug-dealing son Ricky (Bentley) are one of them, and they are by far the most interesting. Others include the King (Peter Gallagher) and, to a lesser extent, a gay couple played by Bakula and Sam Robards.
AMERICAN BEAUTY works so well, in fact, mostly because it's a comedy. This is one hysterical movie, with gags all over the place. But these laughs hurt, because they are directed at us. Lester Burnham is the neo American hero, and as we mock his quest for independence we are ashamed at laughing at him. Some may object to his wild misbehavings, but the truth is that no one can ever expunge 20 years of cultural domination over them cleanly. It takes a mad prophet to change the world, and Lester's my pick for the next one. Of course, to tell you more would be to ruin the glorious ending of this film, where it stops being a good satire, and starts aiming to be a classic masterpiece.
It would be an overblown statement to call this a masterpiece. Certainly, despite the excellent script, there are kinks in the armor, namely the over stereotyping of American subcultures. But in the end, it really does not matter. The script decides to forego the middling material it has and in the last hour, becomes the mad search for redemption in an unforgiving world. All of the characters, we realize, are looking for the same thing: redemption. And are not sure how in the world to find it.
It takes a gutsy performance to make this film work, and Kevin Spacey gives it in the role of his career. This is the role he has been working towards all of his life: the summation of the state of America within a character. And he pulls it off in such dramatic fashion that it will be a travesty if he is not awarded the Best Actor award at the Academy Awards. Annette Bening is sensational, as are all the supporting players. The movie thematically seems to be sure of itself, but is not: it leaves a few holes here and there, and may be too eager to force upon its themes to its audience. No matter. For what its worth, this is a film that truly faces the state of America today. It reexamines beauty and its place in our minds. It is, truly, a beautiful work, one of the best of the year, and is therefore fantastic in its implications. The last act of this work is downright astonishing, as is the far-reaching power of this film. Mendes shows a clear talent for imagery and brings alive a story that demonstrates once and again the tremendous power of film. A glorious achievement.
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