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8.7/10
FilmFascination Rating
American Beauty marks the remarkable debut of two extraordinary talents: American screenwriter Alan Ball and British director Sam Mendes. The film’s poster features the tagline ‘Look closer,’ hinting at the deeper significance behind the title. The name ‘American Beauty’ refers to a type of rose that appears beautiful but often decays beneath the surface. ‘Look closer’ invites viewers to see beyond the attractive veneer of suburban life and uncover its underlying darkness.
Lester Burnham (hero of the film played by Kevin Spacey) is a 42 years old magazine executive who hates his job and is in an unhappy marriage with Carolyn (played by Annette Bening), an ambitious real estate broker. He is tired of living his monotonous life. “In less than a year I’ll be dead,” he tells us about his perception of life “And in a way, I am dead already”. Lester and Carolyn are in a loveless marriage, a fact that is bluntly shown in the first scene where Lester is jerking off in the shower considered to be the high point of his day. ‘It is a commercial for how normal we are when we’re anything but…’ he says.
He looks happy only in photos kept in his house and is sick of his prevailing life. Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) is Lester’s only daughter who is a typical teenager. She is angry, insecure, confused, and is a cheerleader at her school. She is also saving up for breast augmentation, probably because of her insecurities. Ricky (Wes Bentley) is the teenage son of Burnham’s new neighbor, US Marine Colonel Frank Fitts and his catatonic, miserable wife, Barbara. Ricky likes to document everything happening in the world with a camcorder and even documents everything happening at Lester’s house. Though getting the first impression of him being a creep, it is his way of looking at life that the film tries to share.
Both Carolyn and Jane think Lester is a loser and is almost inexistent to them (for their own reasons). But Lester’s life absolutely changes when he meets his daughter’s friend, his divine love- Angela (Mena Suvari) at a school event where he is taken despite his disinterest. The moment he sees her, he is in awe of her beauty and is infatuated with her. His eyes are fixated only on her during the entire event. He shortly starts having sexual fantasies with her.
A 40-year man has a lust for his daughter’s friend. Yikes! It is certainly ethically wrong, but a man would agree that you can disapprove of your intimate thoughts but cannot stop them from entering your mind. It’s not often that a movie is capable of convincing its viewers to sympathize with someone as morally unacceptable as Lester. Angela utterly enters Lester’s mind and this brings a radical change in his life. She is stimulus enough for him to wake up from a marriage-long coma and consider life’s livelier possibilities.
He even starts working out when he secretly hears her talking with Jane that she would have sex with him if he had a better physique. Lester becomes a wholly different man from what the audience gets an impression of in the first few minutes of the movie. He starts voicing his opinions over Carolyn and tells her how he actually feels about their nearly dead. He even quits his job, gets $60,000 through blackmailing, and eventually buys his dream car. He gets this freedom that he had never experienced in his life. It is intriguing to see how much an incident can change a man’s life.
American Beauty is exhilarating, funny, tragic, and brutally frank. It touches on distinct topics such as paternal love, sexual attraction, lust, liberation, redemption, materialistic philosophy, and sexuality. It throws light on the lifestyle the society is leading where no one is bad by nature but all of them are unhappy because they can’t be themselves. The movie takes us on the distinctive journeys of the three souls of the Burnham family. The Burnhams are unaware that they are philosophical materialists who expect the basics of American beauty to bring them happiness.
The Burnham family start the movie in a miserable state but as the film progresses, they move closer to Ricky’s view of the world. It presents Ricky as its visionary. He sees beauty in the minutiae of everyday life, videoing as much as he can for fear of missing it and not having enough of it.
Beauty is found where it is least expected. You just need to develop an eye for it. It is the perception of suburbia of tempting the exterior beauty of material things and not looking closer at the abstract beauty hidden in life.
All the actors have performed incredibly well, but the standout performance that defines the movie is by Kevin Spacey(Lester Burnham in the movie). Spacey plays the character with finesse. His voice as a narrator is peculiar and nice to listen to. With his sly, contagious smile and his exceptionally expressive eyes, it is just difficult to imagine any other actor playing this role.
Alan Ball began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus that accompanied the Amy Fisher trial in 1992 and partly when he saw a paper bag floating in the wind at the World Trade Center Plaza. He gave up on the idea of the story working on stage as it was difficult to portray the journeys of different characters on the stage and returned to the idea in 1997 attempting to debut in the film industry. Mendes was given the job of directing the movie only after several A-list directors turned down the opportunity. The film won several Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director for Mendes, Best Actor for Spacey, Best Original Screenplay for Ball, and Best Cinematography for Conrad Hall. It is among the few movies which won all the main Academy Awards. With Sam Mendes making movies like American Beauty and Revolutionary Road, he seems to have understood the perfect way to portray complex human relationships.
The movie pleasantly surprised me and instantly became one of my favourites. American Beauty forces its viewer to introspect themselves in a way that many have never been forced to experience. All it takes is one event for you to realise that what you have is actually enough. Lester did not get the conventional victory in the end but he is no longer a loser leading a dead life. He is not even mad but has gratitude for every second of his life. In the end, Lester tells the viewers that if they don’t understand the film’s vision of what really matters then they will surely understand someday. This has a spooky aspect to it due to which his words get embedded in your mind. The movie gives a new perception of life, but only if you ‘Look closer’.
Favourite Quotes
Lester Burnham: My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighbourhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year, I will be dead. Of course, I don’t know that yet, and in a way, I am dead already.
Lester Burnham: It’s a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you’ve forgotten about.
Lester Burnham: [narrating] I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn’t a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time… For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars… And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined our street… Or my grandmother’s hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper… And the first time I saw my cousin Tony’s brand new Firebird… And Janie… And Janie… And… Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.
Lester Burnham: Remember those posters that said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”? Well, that’s true of every day but one – the day you die.
Lester Burnham: This isn’t life, it’s just stuff. And it’s become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that’s just nuts.
Lester Burnham: How’s Jane?
Angela Hayes: What do you mean?
Lester Burnham: I mean, how’s her life? Is she happy? Is she miserable? I’d really like to know, and she’d die before she’d ever tell me about it.
Angela Hayes: She’s… she’s really happy. She thinks she’s in love.
Lester Burnham: Good for her.
Angela Hayes: How are you?
Lester Burnham: God, it’s been a long time since anybody asked me that… I’m great.
Angela Hayes: I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.
Lester Burnham: I’m great.
Ricky Fitts: It’s like God’s looking right at you, just for a second, and if you’re careful… you can look right back.
Jane Burnham: And what do you see?
Ricky Fitts: Beauty.
Lester Burnham: Look at me, jerking off in the shower… This will be the high point of my day; it’s all downhill from here.
Lester Burnham: I figured you guys might be able to give me some pointers. I need to shape up. Fast.
Jim Olmeyer: Are you just looking to lose weight, or do you want increased strength and flexibility as well?
Lester Burnham: I want to look good naked!
Ricky Fitts: It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. Right? And this bag was just dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. That’s the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video’s a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember… I need to remember… Sometimes there’s so much beauty in the world, I feel like I can’t take it, and my heart is just going to cave in.
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I absolutely love your blog and find almost all of your post’s to be exactly what I’m looking for. Can you offer guest writers to write content for yourself? I wouldn’t mind publishing a post or elaborating on a lot of the subjects you write related to here. Again, awesome blog!
It’s great to hear that you enjoy reading the reviews. About the guest writing- why don’t you connect with me on mail or facebook?