Lester Burnham is a man who has reached that point in his life where he stops and asks himself “where did the happiness go?” His wife is not attracted to him, his daughter won’t speak to him, and life no longer affords him any pleasures. That is until he lays eyes on his daughter, Jane’s, best friend Angela, and he begins to make some changes in his life in the hope that he might be able to seduce her.
Take a closer look at American suburbia, at those people living the American Dream. Are they happy? HELL NO! American Beauty is a beautifully crafted drama that depicts the shockingly true lives of those people leading a fairy tale life. A peek behind the red curtain, so to speak. It’s an absolutely mesmerising film from start to finish.
“My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighbourhood. This is my street. This is my life. I’m 42 years old. In less than a year, I’ll be dead. Of course, I don’t know that yet. And in a way, I’m dead already.”
Lester Burnham is a man who has reached that point in his life where he stops and asks himself “where did all the happiness go?” His wife is not attracted to him, his daughter, Jane, refuses to speak to him, his job is enraging, and life has ceased to afford him any pleasures. That is until he lays eyes on Jane’s best friend Angela. As he begins to have erotic fantasies about her, Lester begins to make some changes in his life in the hope that he might be able to seduce her. But while Lester is bodybuilding and smoking illicit drugs, other dramas, regarding the people he loves, are set into motion, and soon Lester is caught in a tangled web of denial, deceit, frustration, and betrayal.
This move had absolutely EVERYTHING right! The story is engaging right from the off, the music is erotic and successfully conveys the emotions of the scenes, the characters are each as strong and memorable as each other, and the performances were positively spellbinding.
Not dissimilar to Sunset Boulevard, the film uses the clever plot device of backtracking and voice-over narration to tell the audience the story of the film’s central character: Lester Burnham. American Beauty is subtly different to Sunset Boulevard in that the film does not begin with a death, but with an aerial view of Lester’s neighbourhood. This is really lovely in that it suggests that the narration is coming from Lester, looking down from an otherworldly place. Instantly engaging.
All the performances in this film were admirable, but there are two that stand out: that of Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham and I don’t think anyone else could have done the role. He played every emotion you can think of from sedated to violent. He was absolutely brilliant and got the Academy Award of Best Actor!
Annette Bening played Caroline Burnham and she was a complete diva. She was dominating, ambitious, frustrated, and delightfully tragic. Receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, she was a gem from start to finish.
Starring Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, and Chris Cooper, and receiving the Academy Award for Best Picture, American Beauty is a beautifully crafted drama that is filled with drug use, seduction, romance, defiance, denial, deceit, and betrayal. It’s an absolute winner and definitely a film you have to see before you die.
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