American Beauty

American Beauty movie review: stars Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning

American Beauty

There is a scene in American Beauty which is unlike any that I've seen in a Hollywood movie. In it, a plastic bag swirls in the wind as if dancing to unheard music, both passive to the wind while seemingly captain of its own path. That paper bag, a recapturing of a moment that screenplay writer Alan Ball had actually witnessed, is a remarkable, meditational, moment, in a remarkable, meditational, Academy Award-winning movie. American Beauty won Oscars in 2000 for:

Best Original Screenplay Alan Ball (see interview below)
Best Director (first time director) Sam Mendes
Best Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall
Best Actor Kevin Spacey
Best Picture

Of course, 9/11 changed all that and The Enemy was without, not within. Contemplation was the opposite of what an angry, righteously bellicose nation wanted and it may be many years before a movie such as American Beauty will ever be appreciated by the American public.

American Beauty trailer

Nevertheless, I invite you to step back in time and revisit American Beauty, a black comedy from a very different time but before I do, a word of caution. Homosexuality stalks this screenplay, written by gay screenwriter, Alan Ball, playing, not a large but a pivotal role. Indeed the only "relationships" explored are heterosexual all of which seem damaged and the only "loving" relationship seems that of Lester Burnham's (Kevin Spacey) comical, yuppie gay neighbors. If that's a problem for you, then you may never really fully enjoy American Beauty, unfortunately.

Lester is middle-aged, trapped in a loveless marriage with Carolyn (Annette Benning), a real estate agent. He's drifted apart from their teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and develops a huge crush on her supposedly promiscuous friend, Angela, (Mena Suvari), whom he overhears, finds him cute.

Meanwhile with the gay neighbors on one side, a new, very quiet family moves into the other. Mirroring Lester's own, they have a teenage son, Ricky (Wes Bentley) a strange, detached youth, who has two peculiarites:

he videotapes and catalogues everything and everybody (it's Ricky who videos the paper bag) &
he's a drug dealer who sells the best quality dope in town

After a fracas at work in which Lester manages to blackmail his employers for one year's worth of severance pay, Lester revisits his adolescence, buys a 1970s Mustang, takes a job as a burger flipper, begins to work out to impress Angela and starts buying dope from Ricky.

Lester's radical life decisions cause huge strife with Carolyn and the scene is set for a powderkeg drama when Ricky, who has become involved with Jane, is mistakenly thought by his father, retired Colonel Frank Fitts (Edward Sherrington Leigh) to be fooling around with pumping iron Lester, instead.

American Beauty, the movie, is a true ensemble piece, with writer, director, cast and crew all brought together by Thomas Newman's evocative score, as director Sam Mendes graciously points out on the DVD commentary. In particular, though, while extremely stylised, the cinematography is superb with red, the color of Love, so often subtly dominating the almost washed-out colors of reality.

American Beauty is a superb creation, funny, perceptive, romantic in a bleak, exisatential way, conveying only the most astute of gay insight, delivered cleverly for a predominantly straight world. It's an American classic and gets my highest recommendation.

American Beauty DVD

"...If you have never seen this movie, buy it now, and give it time to sink in, it took me a couple viewings before it really set in for me, and now, I simply can not say enough good about it. This movie is an experience, every single time I watch it, and it just keeps getting better with each viewing..." Amazon reviewer ZippyO "pqsev"

"...American Beauty is a spectacular movie (about) Hope and Life that has captured the hearts of so many people. Sam Mendes, the director, and Alan Ball, the screenwriter, both succeed in displaying the lonely life of Lester Burnham, a middle-aged man who takes a closer look at the world he lives in, and progresses on a journey to get his life back...People are always searching for meaning in their lives, and Lester Burnham finds that meaning... that beauty..." Amazon reviewer Morgen Moxley

Thomas Newman's subtle and slightly creepy World Music-ish score for American Beauty certainly deserves to be a standalone product. Have a listen to the snippets at Amazon, they have a life apart from the movie and can provide you with many hours of enjoyment.

American Beauty score

"...Thomas (Newman's)...score for American Beauty is simply gorgeous and one of his best. Filled with inventive instrumentation--tablas, bird calls, dulcimer, banjo, ukulele, detuned mandolin, and more--the score varies between highly rhythmic, world-music influenced passages...and the more subdued...Throughout, Newman's score is inventive and a great complement to the dark comedy's numerous mood swings..." Amazon blurb

N.B.: Thomas Newman's score shouldn't be confused with the the best-selling American Beauty soundtrack, which includes a couple of tracks from the score as well as pop songs by artists such as:

The Who The Seeker
Free All Right Now
Peggy Lee Bali Ha'i &
Bobby Darrin Don't Rain On My Parade

American Beauty soundtrack

"... This collection of songs is one of the best I've ever heard! Most 'soundtrack' albums contain a collection of over-played songs (this has one - All Right Now, but it is a great song, and it elicits images from the movie, perfect reason to be on here!), but this is a bunch of songs I have found myself listening to over, and over, and over again! I think it is the PERFECT eclectic mix of movie soundtrack song/sounds & popular & rare/seldom heard..." Amazon reviewer John Patrick Hamilton

N.B. several of the famous pop songs from the movie aren't on this best-selling album, so please check the Amazon snippets before purchasing to avoid disappointment.

American Beauty poster