The seamy underbelly of American _fin de siecle_ life continues to provide the richest fodder for movie product. "American Beauty" joins "Happiness" and "Election" as an unblinking look at where we are as a society today.
"Beauty"'s foundation rests squarely on a host of amazing performances from the entire cast--from Kevin Spacey's henpecked husband's rebirth to Annette Bening's nuanced shrew, the three teenagers' heartfelt confusion, Peter Gallagher's smarmy-but-still-okay real estate magnate (and those eyebrows), and Chris Cooper's savage reckoning of a military man (such a wildly different turn from his sheriff in "Lone Star," that I didn't even recognize that it was the same actor).
Conrad Hall's cinematography mesmerizes, approaching a level of art rarely seen in Hollywood product.
Like "Happiness" and "Election," "Beauty" mixes a sense of dire hopelessness with the affirming American notion that there is always another chance. "Beauty" fails to live up to the admittedly high standards set by the other two, with its trite set-up (nuclear family gone awry) and more obvious plot machinations--you're never really surprised by what happens.
Still, the story entertains, including a few marvelous set pieces where Spacey's character deliciously speaks his mind. In these scenes his denouements get the audience cheering as if it were an 80s action flick and he just wasted the bad guy--what other actor could manage that?
AMERICAN BEAUTY tells the story of Lester Burnham Kevin Spacey a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale repetitive existen...More at Family Video
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