THE BEAUTY WITHIN
 Apr 12th, 2001
Advantages:
An excellent film, with so many qualities inside
Disadvantages:
characters are sometimes over the top but no loss to the films magic
Recommendable:
Yes
Detailed rating:
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  broksababe
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Member since:27.07.2000
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Review rated by 64 Ciao members on average: very helpful 
American Beauty… A film portraying the sad misfortunes of a typical American family..
A film of strong sometimes too true to life undercurrents, yet portrayed to the viewer as an almost zany, dry humoured ironic view of life as we know it. Kevin Spacey portrays Leicester Burnham, a sad pathetic example of a man, who now at 42, suddenly realises his life is in a shambles and the mid life crisis starts to affect his reasoning.
The basis of this and the general demise of the characters is all down to one thing, the loss of sexual relationships between Leicester and his wife.
As I said he is a sad, pathetic attempt at a man, but you immediately warm to him somehow and feel for him in his need to once again find his niche in society, however he is superb in being able to play the underdog with his almost believable thoughts and musings and these are portrayed in a comical, light-hearted manner, which makes it even more enjoying. Everything seems to carry on and plod along in Leicester’s dreary dull life until a chance glimpse of his daughters school friend at a baseball game, opens up Leicester’s sexual awareness and gets the blood
flowing again so to speak, he then becomes increasingly detached with vivid dreams of Angela, (Mena Suvari) naked and surrounded by red rose petals, here you start to get the film swaying and twisting from what is reality in his life to the dreams and erotic visions he so desires.
Of course she is the typical high schoolboys dream, pretty, popular and all she is interested in is being anything but ordinary and the need to be attractive to men, plays a huge part in the films fate, as do the red petals as another strong meaningful icon of the films fate. Annette Benning follows through on similar lines. A woman of shallow character, highly driven by her intense wish to succeed at her career, she almost forgets she has a home life and her career becomes to rule her life, including her rather plastic, vomit inducing Boss, the typical smarmy power happy type whom she ends up having passionate encounters with.
Again the underlying films reasoning of loss of the love in their marriage, leads her to become de railed and quite spontaneous in her ways and reasoning. Rebellious daughter Jane completes the oddball family to a tee, the teenager from hell, she is tossed about emotionally caught in the middle of her parents ongoing crisis, she is almost a character that you at first feel bitter towards, hard, callus and not a scrap of warmth is emitted from her until much later on, when she becomes more of the crazy mixed up teenager you all know, but has the capability to show affection and love.
Of course The involvement of the new neighbours plays a major role too, an even odder crew they comprise of Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), who of course is ex Army but he has somehow come out with a serious violent chip on his shoulder, a hard bitter man to deal with. His wife is really not a character at all, a woman that’s says little, does little and comes across as almost a cardboard cut out, she has very little to offer the film apart from, the twinge of feeling sorry for this poor dishevelled creature and what he has made her become.
Now for the son, a key role in this film, at first appearing to be a complete screwball, he spends his life filming everything in sight with a camcorder. Ricky (Wes Bentley), at first leaves you with doubts but once you feel you know the depth of his character you understand him fully…he’s not mad, but sees life through the lens and finds Beauty in everything, or as he says too much Beauty. He is heart-warming as he is dealt bitter blows from the wrath of his seriously unhinged father, this all becomes apparent why a lot later on in the film, but for his father its too late.
The film itself is somehow almost hypnotic, quite where it gains this quality is a mystery, it is easy to see the real life struggles and feelings as they emerge, and the excellent character portrayal only persuades you this more, however when you actually think about it, you realise they are all way over the top, but your enjoyment and understanding is rarely spoilt by this factor. You end up with a film of many substances. One that will make you, laugh, think. and feel pain, all at the hands of a families cruel twist of fate.
A must for anyone really (over 18 of course!). well written , flawless acting and a true classic from Sam Mendes, you will find yourself drawn into the film and it’s message becomes reality…There is an awful lot of Beauty in the world, and if we do look hard enough we can all see it. A very thought provoking message but one we can all benefit from…
Enjoy.
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by (2%):
11.11.2004 23:40
I loved this film, Kevin Spacey is excellant! ~Maz x
17.10.2004 09:05
What a fantastic op of this truly amazing film. I have not yet, before now, ancountered a film review written in this way. I liked it
01.05.2004 18:25
i loved this film. makes me itch