I was in two minds about this, as I thought it might just be another one of those mid life crisis films.
There is an impressive range of actors in this, including Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. The performances they give are very good and the story itself is full of both humour and pathos.
Bening and Spacey play husband and wife with a teenage daughter. The marriage is not going very well, with both partners being frustrated sexually and generally.
Bening ends up having an affair with a real estate king played by Peter Gallagher (he of 'Sex, Lies and Videotape' and 'Brave New World'). This gives her a new lease of life, for a time.
One of the best scenes in the movie is when she is discovered with Gallagher at a fast food drive in by spacey who has taken to working there after giving up his job. The affair is terminated and Bening starts going on a downward spiral.
Spacey has packed in his job with the advertising agency (a familiar line from Hollywood films is it not?) prior to being dismissed and has blackmailed the company into giving him a nice payoff.
Having met his daughter's friend, played by Mena Suvari, he becomes besotted with her and decides to embark on a programme of physical self improvement.
There's more.......
The new kid next door strikes up a friendship with Spacey and ends up supplying him with drugs and his daughter with some romance. The new kid's father is a strict disciplinarian who likes giving the young chap a good hiding from time to time and doesn't like 'fags'.
His father gets the notion that his son and Spacey are lovers and throws the son out of the house. Then he goes and makes a pass at Spacey, which the latter rejects.
Suvari is on the verge of 'doing it' with Spacey when she reveals she has never 'done it'. So Spacey loses interest and starts getting sentimental about his estranged family.
DON'T READ THIS PLISSSKEN, IT'S THE END!
While he is reminiscing about the good times with his now estranged family, the nexy door neighbour puts a bullet through his head. All quite sad really.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2007 - Drama - Director: Mike Binder - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Adam Sandler, Don Cheadle, Jada Pinkett, Liv Tyler, Saffron Burrows, Donald Sutherland, Mike Binder
Production Year: 1998 - Drama - Director: Carl Franklyn, Carl Franklin - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Meryl Streep, William Hurt, Renee Zellweger, Tom Everett Scott, Nicky Katt, Lauren Graham
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Nice op, though i think the decay in America aspect could have been investigated more, and twas a little too plot led...But hey i would say that because....I RULE!!!(its the best line in the film!)
Regards Rennerick.
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![American Beauty [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78526734.jpg "American Beauty [DVD] [2000]")
Apr 24th, 2001
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