Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey –The Usual Suspects, Se7en) isn’t your usual man going through your typical midlife crisis. A man going through a midlife crisis might quit his job, buy a sports car, cheat on his wife, long for a life with no responsibility, or obsess compulsively over things he can’t have. But all of these things at once? Maybe. But it’s less likely for sure. Sam Mendes (1917, Revolutionary Road) is a highly well-known director, even though he has only directed eight movies (as of 2020) and earned just one Oscar nomination before that year. But his film struck an accord, and he took home the two biggest trophies of the year for a person in his profession, Best Director and Best Picture for his debut feature-length film, 1999’s American Beauty.
Burnham is our protagonist if we are allowed to have a protagonist. When we meet him, he represents how many of us might see ourselves when we are in our mid-40s. His job as an advertising salesman leaves him feeling unfulfilled. He lives in a medium-sized suburban home with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right, Being Julia) and daughter Jane (Thora Birch – Ghost World, Clear and Present Danger). Though he’s home in time each night for dinner, his strained relationship with Carolyn and the lack of love between him and his daughter results in meals that lack conversation. What he may have idealized as the American Dream is anything but that. American Beauty is a story of Lester’s defiance against American norms.
We are in Lester’s head for most of this two-hour affair. While we aren’t with him in every scene, he is our narrator. Without a lot of direction in a life that he deems as meaningless, Lester quits his job, blackmails his boss out of $60,000, buys a 1970 Pontiac Firebird, and applies for a job at a fast-food restaurant, all I believe in the same day. He finds little satisfaction, remorse, or concern in telling Carolyn any of this and only does so out of what he feels is his responsibility of being a dutiful husband. But whatever joy he may have once felt towards his family, vocation, or hopes and dreams are gone, replaced with simple acts of what he believes can bring him a newfound fulfillment.
He discovers that he enjoys smoking marijuana with his 18-year-old next-door neighbor Ricky (Wes Bentley – Interstellar, Monster’s Ball) through his new lens. He realized he didn’t care that his wife had been having an affair with the area’s top real estate agent (Peter Gallagher – Shortcuts, Mr. Deeds). Finally, he learns he is obsessed with Jane’s cheerleading teammate and new best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari – American Wedding, Factory Girl). Suvari gives the performance of her career as the high school tease who talks a big game as if she’s wise beyond her years sexually, reveling in the fact that there are men from all walks of her life who are lusting over her teenage body and knowing that she is the essence of desire.
Birch plays Jane with a mature certainty, biding her time until she can graduate from high school and depart from her unhappy home life. She’s embarrassed by her family, especially her dad, who has no time for her. Lester fumbles and stumbles while still trying to act like he’s the father of the year in the presence of Angela.
Ricky is more than just a marijuana-dealing pothead. He’s a bit of a troubled teenager himself. Ricky can be laughing it up with strangers when smoking dope but eccentric and detached when that artificial high disappears. He befriends Jane even though she is bothered by his disturbing habit of constantly videotaping everyone around him. This hobby is personal to his character, while Mendes also artfully converges the footage, making it almost its own unique character in the film.
Ricky’s father, Colonel Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper – Adaptation, Breach), is a retired Marine. He disciplines his son with physical threats and self-administered drug tests as a form of his complicated love. In a film full of aloof characters, he might be the one who is most difficult to pinpoint with a label. While we get to know most of the other characters’ thoughts, motives, and way of life, there always seems to be something murky and mysterious about Frank. Likewise, his wife Barbara (Allison Janney – I, Tonya, Juno) is underutilized, serving as a shell of a person incapable of doing anything while her family denigrates. Ricky has a great line in the movie when he says, “Never underestimate the power of denial.”
Ricky’s father, Col. Fitts, is played by Chris Cooper. He’s a recently retired Marine with a twisted sense of how to raise and discipline his son. Ricky’s mother, played by Allison Janney, is just an emotional shell. She’s incapable of doing anything more than just sitting by and watching while her family falls apart. As Ricky observes at one point,
American Beauty is a fairly flawless movie that will leave you unaffected if you don’t give it the attention it deserves. Mendes’s watchful eye encapsulates each character’s different starting and ending points. In addition, Lester’s epiphany at the film’s conclusion shows us what Mendes had been trying to convey to us all along. These observations include that appearances are deceiving, that no one knows what goes on behind another person’s closed doors, and that none of us have anything figured out, despite what we may try to project toward others.
American Beauty is worthy of all of its accolades and more. Unfortunately, Suvari was denied an Oscar nomination in what was likely the only opportunity of her career. She absolutely should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
Plot 8.5/10
Character Development 10/10
Character Chemistry 9/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 9/10
Directing 10/10
Cinematography 10/10
Sound 8.5/10
Hook and Reel 8.5/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
92.5%
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