American Beauty* won five Oscars, including best film, and had quite a reputation, yet it was only last night I first saw it at a friend’s birthday, and it wasn’t at all what I expected. The film was nothing like I imagined and, to be honest, seemed slightly disappointing given all the hype, but I’ll come to that later.
*** Plot (no spoilers) ***
Lester Burnham is stuck in a midlife rut. He’s reduced to masturbating in the shower and getting pervy over his daughter’s friends, while his wife Carolyn is obsessed with her career and having an affair of her own. Daughter Jane is the typical rebellious teenager, left largely to herself, she seems a bit weird and doesn’t quite fit in next to her friend Angela (the homecoming queen type). The plot seems somewhat uncohesive. There’s no strong central story as such, but the film charts the lives of this dysfunctional family and their ups and downs when everything gets turned upside down, largely as a result of the Fitts family moving in next door. That’s not to accuse it of ‘lack of plot’ as in critical way; at times it seemed to be a series of slightly disjointed events, but there’s still some theme running through the movie and a twist in the tail
*** End of plot (some references
below) ***
I thought the film would be far more comedy/drama, but instead it’s quite deep. Certainly there’s black humour in it; the reactions in our group were split between ‘you’ve got to laugh, or you’ll cry’ and ‘it’s too close to reality to laugh’. Perhaps that’s worrying. The film begins with a voiceover by Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) and follows his family for almost a year. It’s a gripping tale about a typical(?) dysfunctional family in suburban America.
The marriage between Lester and his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is clearly on the verge of breakdown, and their daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is left pretty much to herself. The gay couple next door (Jim and Jim) are perhaps another sign of the breakdown of traditional family values. The arrival of the Fitts family on the other side acts as a catalyst for change. Jane starts dating creepy Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), who also sells her Dad drugs as his midlife crisis leads him to try to recover his youth, and develop an unhealthy obsession with Jane’s friend Angela (Mena Suvari).
The themes are certainly dark; as we follow the dysfunctional family through sex, drugs and affairs. In fact, the dark nature of the film and slightly disjointed lack of plot reminded me of studying Pinter’s Homecoming in English. The audience is presented with what’s going on but, to some extent, left to draw their own explanations.
Things are slightly better explained here. There’s a clear message, reinforced by events at the start and end of the movie. Basically the importance of living your life to the full is stressed by Lester’s new leaf, and we also see how those who are ‘different’ (Jane and Ricky) can often be the ‘good guys’ while the cool and popular ‘teen queens’ (Angela) are really shallow and insecure. Despite all this, it’s still a pretty disturbing movie though – and for once you hope the guy doesn’t get the girl!
What the movie certainly is is tense. I’ll admit that even though at times I didn’t think much of it, I had to keep watching, out of a sort of morbid fascination almost, just to see what happens next. The acting is superb, because despite the seemingly unreal characters, it’s totally believable. Spacey’s Oscar was well deserved, and I thought Chris Cooper as Colonel Frank Fitts was also superb.
Rating: 18 – contains sex, moderate violence, drugs and bad language including the ‘c-word’
For more details: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0169547
Overall verdict:
This is the tricky part, how do I rate it? Well, you see, the thing is I can see why people have raved about this film, and it deserves the rave reviews it’s had, but I wasn’t quite so impressed. As I said, technically it’s brilliant, with superb acting and scripts. It’s a challenging piece, but with depth and a serious message.
I have heard it rewards more than one viewing. To be honest, I would quite like to see it again just to be sure I haven’t missed something (though I honestly think not - it just wasn't for me!)
Perhaps what was wrong for me was the setting. This isn’t the kind of movie to watch with friends and a few drinks/popcorn. With hindsight we’d have been better off watching a fun no-brain movie like Chicken Run or Scream (the other videos we had last night).
American Beauty is a technically excellent film, and I’d definitely recommend seeing it if you haven’t already (subject to what I just said about the occasion it’s suitable for). Personally though, I didn’t enjoy it as much as it’s reputation suggested, so I’m only giving it 3*
*Note: this is, of course, the 1999 film. There was an American Beauty in 1927 directed by Richard Wallace (known as The Beautiful Fraud in the UK) which bears no relation.
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
Drama - Director: Chazz Palminteri - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Paul Walker, Alan Arkin, Marcus Thomas, Donna Hanover, Robin Williams
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
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
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![American Beauty [DVD] [2000]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78526734.jpg "American Beauty [DVD] [2000]")
Apr 4th, 2002
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