American Beauty Review

Das Boot Review

Number 71 on the top 1000 films of all time is the dark comedy-drama American Beauty.

Meet the Burnham family-your everyday average ordinary family who are anything but.  The story is narrated by Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey,) the father of the household who is in a dead-end job that he hates and is married to a narcissistic, over-bearing wife that emasculates him at every turn.  To top it all off, he has a angst-filled teenage daughter Jane who hates him.  However, Lester undergoes a deep awakening when he falls in love with Jane's friend Angela Haynes (Mena Suvari.)

Upon watching the first 30 minutes of this film, I had serious misgivings, due to the predatory nature of the 42 year old Lester lusting over the 16 year old Angela.  I was just a little uncomfortable by this disturbing narrative, which was only worsened by how Angela seemed to reciprocate Lester's feelings.  However, as the film progressed, it was easier to see why these characters were so attracted to each other.  American Beauty is a film about non-conformity.  It emphasises the importance of deviating from the norm and being your own person.  Angela wants nothing more than to be special , the thought of being normal repulses her.  At the same time, Lester Burnham begins not, just rebelling against the norm, but effectively destroying it.  He blackmails his employer into giving him a hefty severance package, angrily confronts his wife over their lack of sexual intimacy and trades in his battered old car for the car of his dreams.  In Lester and Angela's journey to be defined as something outside the norm, they find each other.

 I have seen Kevin Spacey in the Usual Suspects and Se7en and the odd episode of House of Cards and in every role, he brings a charismatic magnetism to the screen.  American Beauty is no exception.  His transformation from a battered, emasculated man to alpha-male is one of the driving forces of the film and it is enthralling to watch.  At the film's beginning, there is the image of Lester pathetically masturbating in the shower.  Later on, his wife catches him masturbating beside her in bed.

Rather than submitting to her will, he angrily confronts her about how their lack of sex has driven him to this.  In another scene, Lester throws a plate of asparagus at the wall, when his wife berates him for quitting the job he hates.  This is startling behaviour for a man so pitiful that he had to jerk off in the shower.  However, considering his situation, it is understandable.  Lester's wife is a highly strung bitch and his daughter thinks he is a loser.  He is sympathetic, rather than childish when he acts out.  Lester Burnham is comparable to Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects.  Both of them start as initially pathetic characters whom others underestimate, but then become far greater than the sum of their parts.

Lester's transformation is not only fuelled by his infatuation with Angela, but also by the neighbour kid Ricky Fits.  Ricky is a deeply-enlightened teenager and secret drug dealer.  He and Lester bond over a spliff and to some extent, Lester becomes the father figure that Ricky never had.  Ricky's own father, a deeply homophobic, ultra-masculine U.S Marine colonel, is abusive and strict.  Ricky is very much the opposite of Lester.

Where Lester is striving for non-conformity, Ricky has already reached this stage and is one of the weirdest and creepiest characters in the film.  I think his characterisation was overdone.  We get it- his character is weird and creepy- was it really necessary to have him excessive film every waking moment of his life.  Even in the age of the selfie, it is still strange to see people walking around filming themselves and everyone around them.  It is made explicitly obvious that his deep enlightenment comes from his drug use.  Having him film everything felt like a heavy-handed and an overly-conscious attempt by the film to establish his character is the emblem of non-conformity.

American Beauty is complimented by its visual style.  It is full of visual metaphors adding layers of meaning.  Whenever Lester's boss is admonishing him, a POV shot is used victimising Lester.  However, when Lester fantasises about Angela, the camera looks down at her rendering her the subject of his fantasy.  She is surrounded by rose petals with the red obviously symbolising lust and the petals themselves a symbol of decay.  Once removed from their host plant the petals will slowly start shrivelling up and dying, symbolising what effect materialism can have on our lives.

Celebrated by critics and fans alike as a satire of American excess, as well as being compared to American Psycho and Fight Club for its engagement with consumerism and conformity, American Beauty is a poignant and powerful tale about the dangers of materialism.  Its most important point is that beauty can be found everywhere.  It is up to us to go and find it, even if we have to chisel through a few layers of make-up and glitter to get to it.