Just the all-time favourite!

Rating: 10/10 (2 March 2005)

Of course these are great words but American Beauty remains the best film I've ever seen. Lester Burnham (played by the fabulous Kevin Spacey, who was awarded with one of the most deserved Oscars ever for the role) tells us that he will be dead in a year - and IS already. That's the simple but genuine idea of the film and what director Sam Mendes (you really can see that he was a theatre director before!) and scriptwriter Alan Ball present between these words and Lester's death is an amazing drama with a beautiful poetic story, dark humour (which makes you laugh even after the twentieth time of watching), breathtaking pictures (especially the ones by Ricky's handy cam!) and an ensemble of actors that has never been beaten up to now. Lester decides to change his boring and frustrating life completely. He falls in love with his daughter's girlfriend Angela (Mena Suvari - yes, she CAN play serious roles!) and masturbates at night (while his wife Carolyn is lying next to him!) This "new" feeling of sexual satisfaction takes Lester to give up his job and blackmail an enormous compensation by the fierce Brad. (Perhaps one the funniest scenes of the film - just these words: "Against who?" - "Against you!") He meets the new neighbour Ricky Fits and smokes dope again, just as in his earlier (and better!) days. Ricky (played by the overwhelming Wes Bentley, who is just as good or even better than Spacey!), who seems to have some mental problems in the beginning but seems to be the most intelligent character of the story, falls in love with Lester's daughter Jane (Thora Birch - excellently rebellious!) and protests against his brutal and radically conservative father Colonel Frank Fits (Chris Cooper - better than in "Adaption"!). Carolyn (Annette Bening, in my opinion a little bit outmatched by the amazing acting of Spacey and Bentley), Lester's "offical" wife, tries to compensate her lack in life with an affair to the successful estate agent Buddy Kane but isn't able to find a way out of her crisis either. I don't want to talk too much about the plot because it is too complex for a review. It would also be unfair for all the poor film-lovers which couldn't see this masterpiece yet. Only that much: The film continues with a lot of guns, a plastic bag "playing" in the wind (the most poetic scene in film history!) and a very surprising appearance of homosexuality. In the end I can just say, Thank you Sam Mendes, Thank you Alan Ball, Thank you Kevin Spacey and all the others! THANK YOU FOR THIS FILM!!!