"I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up."
American Beauty took the world by storm. Many great movies came out in 1999, and if you were to trust critics and organisations like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Sam Mendes' directional debut was the best of them. It won 5 oscars and 86 other prices (according to IMDb.com), including 6 BAFTA awards and 3 golden globes. Now, I've only just seen this movie recently, and i honestly had no idea what to expect form it. I didn't know if it was gonna be a drama, a thriller, comedy or whatever, and after watching it, i honestly still don't know which of those categories it fits. All i know is that this movie amazed me. Man, did it amaze me.
American Beauty takes place in a suburban neighbourhood, where the depressed Lester Burnham, portrayed perfectly by Kevin Spacey, is feeling the affects of a midlife crisis. When he falls in love with his daughter's best friend, he realises that it's not too late for him to turn his life around. This marks a new beginning for a few of the neighbourhood's residents including Lester's wife Carolyn, their daughter Jane and her friend Angela, whom Lester is in love with, and the neighbour boy Ricky and his father Frank, a homophobic marine. Now, if you've read my review of Django Unchain, you will know that one of my biggest gribes about that movie was it's lag of character progression. It's really kinda fitting for American Beauty to be the next movie in line for review, because it just might be the movie with the single MOST character based progression I've seen, ever. Watching all the previously mentioned characters evolve with and around each other in their personal pursuit of happiness, is one of the most enjoyable movie experiences I've had in my short life this far, and this pursuit is one of the main themes of this movie.
The other main theme, and probably the biggest one, is American beauty. The American dream tells people that being a mother with a job in the suburbs, a colonel in the army or a skinny, blond, beautiful cheerleader is ideal. This is however not always the truth, as it is the case in this movie. Carolyn may have money and a beautiful house, but she is miserable on the inside, and just like Col. Frank she needs to be in control of things in order to be happy. Angela is the girl Lester falls in love with, because she is beautiful on the outside. In reality, she's mean and abusive, but her outside looks don't give that away. Lester falling in love with her symbolises how people care too much about what's on the outside, and the picture of her lying in a bed of roses is an iconic metaphor for materialism. Ricky falls in love with Jane, even though she's not nearly as good looking as Angela, because he's capable of seeing the beauty inside of her. He's actually the hero of this movie, because he's capable of seeing though the curtain that the idea of outside beauty has shrouded the world in.
Even though it is a serious movie, American Beauty has some extremely funny moments, and it's actually really clever humor most of the time as well. There's just something about the way Kevin Spacey's character stops giving a shit about materialistic things that hit home with me. I also really liked how the director uses shots of the characters being alone to symbolise how they feel at any given time. Especially the ones of Jane looking at herself in the mirror stood out to me, because they're great examples of how someone can feel terrible because they might be a little too over weight, even though they are beautiful on the inside.
As you probably can tell, this movie struck home with me, big time. I love the acting and the themes and messages of this film so so much, and i completely understand how this movie won the oscar for best picture over movies like Fight Club and The Matrix. Kevin Spacey's acting is phenomenal and the character development is outstanding, the music fits great to the tone of the movie, and i understood the message that the director wanted to get across. Not giving this movie my highest rating would be a sin and travesty, so that's exactly what i'm gonna do. American Beauty is movie magic at it's best, there's no simpler way to say it. (6/6)
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