American Beauty

A movie by Sam Mendes

With Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley and others

Christina says:

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is your typical frustrated upper middle class American. He hates the dead-end job he’s stuck in, doesn’t feel at home in his tastefully decorated house full of pictures from better times, barely knows his daughter and never even touches his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) anymore. Men like him sometimes grab a gun and try to at least end their lives in a spectacular way by running amok. Lester’s solution isn’t quite as extreme as that. He takes one look at cheerleader Angela (Mena Suvari), a friend of his daughter, and his hormones are in full swing. Instead of hiding behind a tired cynicism he does his best to turn back the clock to the time when everything still looked promising. He works out, smokes marihuana and quits his job in advertising to flip burgers in a fast food joint. And he does a more conventional thing: he buys a sports car. Carolyn doesn’t know what to make of all this. To boost her self-esteem she needs a successful husband, a man like – for example – her rival on the real estate market, Buddy King (Peter Gallagher). Lester can’t be this man anymore. Even their gay neighbor (I’m not sure which one, since they are both conveniently named Jim) has a better partner than she does. Stuck between Lester and Carolyn is their daughter Jane (Thora Birch). Not only is the poor girl burdened with parents suffering from an identity crisis, but also with a best friend who enjoys her company only because she looks so good compared with plain Jane. Jane turns to her new neighbor Ricky (Wes Bentley) who deals with his brutal father (Chris Cooper) and his apathetic mother (Allison Janney) in his own way and makes a fortune as a drug dealer.

Watching this I can’t help but ask myself how the members of the consumer society, American style, managed to survive to this day. And not only how but also why? Still, it is fascinating to watch, especially in a movie that’s done so well and features such great acting. The most thankless part fell to Annette Bening, because Carolyn Burnham is a bundle of clichés, only that she other than her husband is not allowed to look human. Almost every word from her mouth is a quote from one of the motivational tapes she listens to all the time.

While Kevin Spacey lives out his play instinct behind the wheel of his dream car and drools after Mena Suvari, Thora Birch and Wes Bentley discover the world through a video camera and give us interesting images from unusual points of view.

Play it again, Sam Mendes.

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Christina Gross

Last changes: 01/04/03