American Beauty (1999) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
"I will sell this house today." Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper. Rated R.
In my reviews I try to make gentle recommendations rather than telling you what to see or what not to see. I realize that we all have different tastes and I cannot predict what my audience will like and what they will dislike. But in the case of American Beauty, I must make an exception. If you haven't yet seen it, go see it. Now. Stop reading this review and head for your local multiplex, then after you've seen it, come back. I'll wait here. Welcome Back. If you followed my advice (and I see no reason why you should not have, do you?), I'm sure you've just had one of the richest cinematic experiences of your life. American Beauty is an extraordinary film, a powerful, jolting exploration of the dark side of the American dream. It's humorous but it isn't funny because of the unrelenting ominous undercurrent that runs throughout the whole production. Mixing comedy and the darkest of drama was the way this film was intended, and by God, it works, making it one of the year's very best.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) has entered the mother of all mid-life crises. He is living life without a purpose. He is bored, depressed and sick of his sheltered, insignificant existence. He barely ever talks to his family, has no sex life, is stuck at a dead-end job and thinks he has no reason to live. But one day, when he and his equally troubled wife (Annette Bening) attend one of his daughter's (Thora Birch) cheerleading performances, he sees something that makes him come alive. What he sees is the performance by his daughter's friend, the head cheerleader. He develops a lust for the promiscuous young girl; an obsession which soon becomes pedophilic in nature. But for the first time, Lester feels that he is actually living.
This crush is only the beginning. Lester proceeds to make more and more radical changes in his life, buying the car of his dreams, cursing off the boss and quitting his job ("Today I quit my job, told the boss to f*** himself and blackmailed him for $60,000 -- would you pass the asparagus please?"), buying drugs from the voyeur-next-door (Ricky Fitts, a teenager who mysteriously videotapes what he considers to be "beauty") and refusing to be docile in family affairs. His new attitude further alienates his daughter, only reassuring her that her parents are nothing more than freaks of nature unjustly forced on her by the powers that be, and inspiring her to enter a relationship with her eccentric neighbor.
And the Burnhams's neighbors provide American Beauty with a significant chunk of its dramatic momentum. Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) serves as the film's thematic center, providing the obscure, powerful meaning of the title. Colonel Fitts, the father, is one of the most fascinating and complex characters in the movie, even considering his limited screentime.
Kevin Spacey has never been better, and this performance will certainly earn him a chance to put a little gold person on his mantel. He never plays his droll character as a freak, rather, he effectively portrays him as a normal person led to drastic self-exploration by his dissatisfaction with life. Spacey is poignant and devastating in the role of a lifetime. Equally astonishing is young Thora Birch, who plays her potentially stereotypical rebellious teen character with suprising feeling and tenderness.
At two hours and ten minutes, American Beauty didn't feel nearly long enough. It's a complicated, unforgettable film that, like The Ice Storm two years ago, dares to explore the darkest reaches of suburban life. Powerfully and cynically, it dissects the notion of the pretty house with the white picket fence and appealing garden being the American Dream. It claims that this picture-perfect image is just that -- an image, and hiding behind it are lives much darker than common knowledge would have it.
The dark, deeply ironic ending, though given away by our narrator in the first few minutes of the movie, stays with you for weeks after it's all over. American Beauty is just the kind of uncompromising film Hollywood needs every now and then to counterbalance the mindless drivel we see released; even more so considering it's a masterpiece.
Grade: A
©1999 Eugene Novikov
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