Starring Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Scott Bakula, Sam Robards. Directed by Sam Mendes. Written by Alan Ball. Lester Burnham (Spacey) announces he has less than a year to live, but he doesn't know it. But he suggests he's already dead. He lives in a picture-perfect suburban home with a beautiful, successful wife with her own real estate company and a knack for growing perfect roses, and a lovely teenage daughter. They live next door to Jim and Jim (Bakula and Robards), a gay couple with successful careers and a happy personal life. But things aren't as rosy in the Burnham household as they seem to the outside world. Lester has worked in an advertising firm for the last 14 years, and loathes the job and the clients he has to suck up to. He also hates his over-achieving dweeb boss, who has asked him and all his coworkers to write a letter why they shouldn't be the one fired to save money. He (correctly) believes his wife thinks he's a loser, and they haven't touched each other in years. She spends every waking moment trying to project to the world an image of family bliss, and confident career-woman (which she isn't). Their daughter Jane (Birch) hates both of them, primarily because she never gets any of their attention. She hangs around with teen nymphette-to-be Angela (Suvari), and the new next-door neighbour Ricky, a former mental patient who likes to film on his video camera, and likes most to film Jane in various states of dress. One night Lester meets Angela after she and Jane had done a cheerleading routine at the high school basketball game. He is immediately smitten, and what was dead within him suddenly comes alive. He starts working out in his garage. He goes to work and gives his boss a hilarious take-this-job-and-shove-it letter, blackmailing the boss into giving him a fat severance package. He starts buying some high grade pot from Ricky. Carolyn is befuddled by Lester's new attitude, and begins an affair with the "King" of real estate (Gallagher). And events start to evolve in unexpected and interesting ways. Like Ang Lee's excellent and underexposed Ice Storm, American Beauty looks at a couple bored and angry with each other, each a shell of their younger, more carefree selves. They both involve a teenage daughter who they all but ignore in their busy lives, and who seek attention in potentially self-destructive ways. But there much of the similarities end. American Beauty moves in several directions at once, and just when you think you see where it's going, it takes another twist and adds another layer. The homophobia of Colonel Fitts, the facade Angela projects of a confident teen "beauty", and the emotionally crippled Ricky and his relationship with his father all evolve in interesting and unexpected ways. The film is ostensibly a social satire, but it is filled with humour, poignant drama, and scenes difficult to characterize. It deals not just with the masks many people put on to project "an image to the world" that the King advocates to Carolyn, but how unhappy keeping up the charade makes people. The most well adjusted people are Jim and Jim. They are gay and they don't bother trying to hide it. They are the only people who are being themselves, and content with who they are. The film is also about the promise of the so-called American Dream, and that attaining material and career success can be empty when you lose yourself and what was once important to you along the way. Despite its bleak depiction of suburban life, the film is surprisingly hopeful, saying that no matter how bad things may be in your life, you can change how you react to the world if you want to change. Ricky's favourite image that he videotaped is of a plastic bag floating in the wind just before a snowstorm, which he interprets to be a "larger life" force going on behind things, and that he never needed "to be afraid". An excellent feature is the scathing contempt the film shows for the Tony Robbinseque motivational tapes Carolyn religiously listens to on the car radio to motivate herself, to the point of convincing herself she "won't be a victim" when in fact she has only herself to blame for her misfortune. The script is beautifully written and brimming with ideas and insights, but is mostly just really entertaining. But what allows the film to attain its high level of success is an outstanding cast. Bening won raves at The Toronto Film Festival, and is great as the artificially perky perfectionist whose chief goal is to acquire great things, and look good to the outside world. Birch has taken a page from Christina Ricci, playing a sullen, under-confident young girl seeking something, but not exactly knowing what. Suvari is really quite good as the trampy teen who puts on a brave front, but underneath is really insecure and unsure of herself. But the single best feature of the film is Kevin Spacey. He brings relish and sheer joy to Lester as the great weight of societal expectations are lifted from him. He just doesn't care about what people think he should do anymore. This is one of the best films of the year, and my favourite thus far. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page