If life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade, right? So what happens if life hands you a kumquat
If life hands you a lemon, you make lemonade, right? So what happens if life hands you a kumquat
Member since:21.10.2000
Reviews:60
Members who trust:40
I must admit that I hadn't paid much attention to American Beauty on it's initial release, it wasn't really "my kind of film". I'm more of a guns-n-monsters kind of guy, but with 5 Oscars (including best picture), 6 Baftas, terrific reviews and everyone I know going "You MUST see American Beauty!" - I thought I'd better give it a go.
So I did and all I can say is that I wish I'd watched it sooner because this is not the drippy, "chick-flick" that I was half expecting, but a well written, superbly acted and genuinely surprising tale that manages to be moving, funny, dramatic and uplifting.
Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a man who leads a successful if somewhat boring life somewhere in Middle America. Carolyn (Annette Bening) is his slightly neurotic wife while his daughter Janie (Thora Birch) is just coming to terms with being a young teenager. Tired of his hum-drum existance, Lester
decides to instill a few changes in his life. He quits his job, begins to have fantasies about his daughters friend Angela (The gorgeous Mena Suvari), starts smoking dope which he buys from his new neighbour Ricky (Wes Bentley) and even gets a job at a drive-thru burger bar. Needless to say Lester's new lifestyle does not go down too well with his wife, daughter, boss, neighbour, neighbours Dad etc...etc...and everything starts to go wrong. So wrong in fact that this change in lifestyle starts a chain of events that ultimately leads to Lester's murder. The audience is informed of this via a voice-over from Lester at the beginning of the film, so as the story unfolds and Lester continues to annoy everyone around him, there is a sense of unease throughout as we are kept guessing as to how he will meet his demise. Not so much a "whodunnit?" but more of a "whowilldoit?" or perhaps even a "whowilldoit first!".
American Beauty is a constant delight, Kevin Spacey is always a joy to watch and this is no exception. Newcomers Thora Birch and Wes Bentley both handle their demanding roles with a professionalism that makes them look like veterans and Mena Suvari as the young siren positively smoulders!
The screenplay by Alan Ball is witty and poignant without ever being bogged down in sentimentality, composer Thomas Newman has created some beautiful music for this film and veteran cinematographer Conrad Hall handles the lighting and camerawork in such a way as to give the whole thing a classical feel to it, reminiscent of the "Golden age of Hollywood" in the 40's and 50's.
The real discovery here though is director Sam Mendes, normally associated with English theatre productions such as The Blue Room starring Nicole Kidman. Amazingly this is his first feature film although you would think that he's been making movies for years because the young director excels at something which seems to have been forgotten in Hollywood recently - storytelling. American Beauty deserves every bit of it's success for this is genuinely one of the best films to emerge for years and coming from an "action-junkie" like myself, this is high praise indeed. So, does the DVD of American Beauty live up to the actual film? Well, almost. Sound and picture are flawless but so they should be. 2 trailers and a reasonably thorough behind-the-scenes featurette kick things off to a good start, but the real gems are a commentary from Sam Mendes and Alan Ball which proves to be both entertaining and informative, and a storyboard presentation with commentary from Mendes and Conrad Hall which gives a fascinating insight into just how much work goes into framing the shots, lighting and constructing each scene. This weighs in at a whopping 60 minutes. A few deleted scenes and a couple more cast interviews would have finished things off nicely but you can't have everything I suppose. As it is though, American Beauty is a brilliant piece of film-making on an above average DVD and is virtually identical in region 1 or region 2 format, the only difference being that the R1 version comes with a DTS audio track as well as the standard Dolby Digital 5.1, but that will only be of any importance to the techno-nerds out there. (Like me!)
Very highly recommended.
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A great review! I loved Wes Bentley in this :0) Sid
james.bridgeman 27.09.2001 16:13
Is "Best film of the last decade" going too far? Certainly my favourite film for as long as I can remember; bought the DVD and was very pleased with the product. JB
Disillusioned 29.04.2001 10:31
Excellent op, shame some dick-head gave it a unhelpful. Down with Guiddie2000!!! :) Cheers. Jim
From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street,American Beautymoves with ... more
a mesmerising confidence and acuity epitomised by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Look closer at the most talked about film of the year. A funny, moving and shocking ... more
journey through life in suburban America.Look closer at fortysomething ad man Lester Burnham and his status-seeking wife, Carolyn, as their marriage and lives slowly un...
From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street,American Beautymoves with ... more
a mesmerising confidence and acuity epitomised by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Marking the feature film directorial debut of award-winning theatre director Sam Mendes ... more
this funny moving and shocking journey through life in suburban America follows the trials and tribulations of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Bening) ...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Intelligent script, inventive direction, superb acting...memorable in every respect Disadvantages: Definitely not one for the children. Explicit language, sexual content and violence.
EnglishPatient 22.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of American Beauty (DVD)
![American Beauty [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78526734.jpg "American Beauty [DVD] [2000]")
Jan 15th, 2001
(Jan 24th, 2001)
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