Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Had I been writing on Epinions in its debut year of 1999, I have no doubt I would have written a piece on this movie. Thanks to an invite from Bryan Carey for his New Millennium Write-Off, I have now found both reason and time to review this film.

Lester Burnham has made a living selling advertising to his firm's clients. His wife, Carolyn, owns her own real estate agency, and vows to sell people their homes of their dreams. Their daughter, Jane, is a high school student and a member of her school's award-winning cheerleading squad. They have all sold themselves on the notion that the life they lead as a family has value. In American Beauty, viewers will be hard-pressed to find that value.

Lester (Kevin Spacey), though, explains his life, and takes people on a journey through about one year of it. Lester's firm is about to downsize, and has hired efficiency expert Brad Dupree (Barry Del Sherman) to determine who should be slated to leave. Brad wants Lester to prepare a list of reasons of why Lester should be retained by the company. Instead, he remarks how some of his superiors at the firm waste company money with business trips that include expenditures for illicit companionship. When he goes home, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is the person in charge. Appearance means everything to Carolyn, from the way she carefully prepares her garden to the way she prepares a home for viewing to the way she cooks the family meals. She is tough on Lester whenever he makes a mistake. Privately, Carolyn is even more demanding on herself. Jane (Thora Birch) has lost touch with both her parents as she struggles of being a teenager. In spite of Carolyn's emphasis on appearance, Jane remains more self-conscious than she needs to be. Yet, Jane and Carolyn remain at odds on the definition of appearance. Any love there may be among the three of them is virtually gone.

Jane's best friend is Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), a fellow cheerleader convinced that her looks will take her far in life. From the moment Lester lays eyes on Angela, he has the feelings of a teenager. Angela doesn't mind the awestruck looks she gets from Lester. Jane is repulsed, but Carolyn doesn't even notice. She has become interested in Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher), a rival real estate owner who's going through a divorce. Meanwhile, the friendship between Jane and Angela becomes even more strained as Jane makes friends with Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), son of the Burnhams' new next door neighbors. Ricky has had troubles with drugs, and films all sorts of subjects as though he were obsessed with the subjects. Jane and Angela are bothered by his ever-present video camera at first, but Jane comes to understand Ricky in a different light. Ricky's marine colonel father, Frank (Chris Cooper), is a demanding taskmaster who insists his son give him urine samples to prove he's clean. Frank's demands sometimes lead to physical confrontation. Frank's wife, Barbara (Allison Janney), lives in dutiful silence to the ways of her husband. Ricky, though, is anything but clean, smoking and selling pot behind the colonel's back. Ricky soon finds Lester is a client.

That is just one of the ways Lester is trying to change his world. Fed up with Brad's presence and condescending attitude, Lester decides he's not going to fight to keep a job he doesn't even like. Not only does Lester lose his job, he blackmails Brad into giving him a huge severance package. With the severance package, Lester buys a car he wants and takes the most menial position at a fast food restaurant. Carolyn is aghast at the changes Lester has made. Frank, however, is disturbed at what he thinks is happening between Ricky and Lester. Lester has, for many years, wanted some change in his life. He gets change in ways he didn't expect.

American Beauty is an excellent mix of comedy and drama. Lester shows that his life, on one level, is very sad. He has found his voice has been silenced both at home and at work. His best moments come when he is left alone - and he always is in the shower and in bed. When Lester's briefcase opens on the way to the family car, Carolyn can't help but make a sarcastic remark about his making her run even later. Carolyn, though, is privately harder on herself when her life and her work is not perfect. When Lester finds a reason to challenge authority, he finds he likes it. He also cherishes the attention he gets from Ricky and Angela, for they provide the only positive attention Lester gets. The screenplay from Alan Ball shows that the Burnham and Fitts families are so very much alike. One adult rules, one adult follows, and their children don't care for this arrangement. Yet, Ball presents characters who are more vulnerable than they will ever lead their families to believe. Ball also shows that, in this block of suburbia, the neighbors who seem happiest with themselves are Jim Olmeyer (Scott Bakula) and Jim Berkley (Sam Robards), life partners who show their humanity, no matter what the neighbors think.

The movie also marked the first big-screen effort from director Sam Mendes, whose primary directing experience before American Beauty was on the stage, both in England and the United States. He also directed a couple of movie musicals for British TV. He paces the movie slowly and deliberately to show how Lester changes as the film progresses. Lester wants nothing more than to have some say in his own life. He understands he still has responsibilities, but he has lacked a say as to how he carries out his responsibilities. In the process, Lester finds the humanity that had lain dormant inside him. Assisting Mendes in this sad, dark, and ultimately uplifting portrait of family conflict is cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, who often makes use of shadows and dark colors to show the loneliness that is found in both the Burnham and Fitts homes. In one scene, the Burnhams are seated at dinner in a dimly lit room. The only bright spot in the dining room is the arrangement of roses Carolyn has picked, which stands in contrast to the conversation, which speaks little of the lack of interest the three members of the family have in what has happened during the day. The darkest shots, though, are reserved for Lester's fantasies about Angela. The musical score of Thomas Newman complements the sadness of the situation, yet also uses bright sounds to signify the good changes Lester and his family are experiencing.

The cast turns in some of their best work in this movie. Spacey is memorable as Lester, whose deadpan approach masks his desire for change. One of his best moments comes in the scene where he has bought the car of his dreams, much to the consternation of Carolyn. When she asks what he's done, he gives a short answer that ends with "I rule." Another of the best scenes comes when Lester sees Carolyn and Buddy at the fast food restaurant and maintains his composure. Bening is the emotional polar opposite as Carolyn, with a manic energy that has both dramatic and comic elements. She cleans a house for sale with a manic energy, yet she hates herself at the end of the day when she has not found a buyer. The character who loathes himself the most, though, is Cooper's Colonel Fitts. He always raises his fists in anger to Ricky. Yet, in his key moment of weakness, he shows his hypocrisy. There isn't a performance in this movie that is anything less than strong.

The DVD extras include commentary on the movie with Mendes and Ball and a discussion of the shots featuring Mendes and Hall. Two theatrical trailers are also included, as well as a short feature about the making of the picture. There are also production notes and CD-ROM exclusives. In addition, the DVD contains an insert featuring an essay by Mendes that talks about his experiences on the production of the film.

American Beauty won five Oscars, including Best Picture. The other statues went to Spacey, Mendes, Ball, and Hall. These men are just a small part of what made the movie an exceptional study in how appearances can be so deceiving. Once upon a time, Lester and Carolyn Burnham had wanted to make a comfortable life for themselves and their family. They had grown so comfortable in that life, they didn't notice how much life had changed for them. It took a bit of adversity for Lester to wake up and learn that what he wanted as a newlywed is not what he wants in his present life. In their own ways, Carolyn and Jane have discovered they also want something different. In the end, Lester tells anyone who is willing to listen to have a life that matters. Too many people have acted like him and lived to regret their choices.


This has been my entry in the New Millennium Write-Off hosted by Bryan_Carey. For other entries, please click on the hyperlink at the top of this essay.

Thanks, Bryan, for asking me to be a part of your milestone event.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older