The beauty of "American Beauty"

Rating: Null/10 (8 October 2002)

Having watched this film and written an analytical piece of work on it for my AS media studies I would just like express my opinion on what I consider to be a great movie. The role of "Lester Burnham" could not have been better played by Kevin Spacey and the diversity of the characters and the storyline with the intertwining sub-plots make this an enjoyable piece of cinema,fully deserving of the accolades and plaudits that it has won. It is brilliantly shot and Sam Mendes fully shows off his talent for writing a realistic and bitter-sweet drama.
The range of characters and how they interact with each other is the key to why this film works so well, the audience all know someone who could be likened to a character in the film, although hopefully less extreme. For me this is THE film and the way it manages to touch on so many of todays subjects, several of them still taboo are what makes this a masterpiece in my eyes. People will watch this in the future, only the truly myopic cannot see that.
Overall this film filled a void that was apparent in the movie industry and there was nothing like this prior to it and I seriously doubt whether there will be anything similar to proceed this ground and barrier breaking film.