surburbia

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2006)

unlike some, i find the topic of the mediocrity of suburban life to be very interesting, as i can relate to the environment... often people say that these tales are of no value, and that characters in these settings should "just get over it"... or "why does anybody care about a bunch of spoiled boring people?"...
i'm not of the opinion that suburban life is irrelevant... it's the situation many people find themselves in, and in it people face different struggles... perhaps not as monumental as fighting giant worms or dodging terrifying political violence, but still valid and human...
thus, i have watched many movies that tackle the subject... a common slant is to infuse a little fantasy or poetry in the otherwise mundane, which brings out certain truths or extrapolates on the human condition...
American beauty is no different... while other movies like "lawn dogs" firmly establish the fairytale idea early on in the movie, American beauty plays quite straight until its main character's fantasies are used to unlock hidden truths about the world he lives in... objects are given dreamlike significance, etc...
American beauty also slips into an unlikely set of events, much like the awful "desperate housewives"... our protagonist (played by kevin spacey) attempts blackmail to fund a life of teenage ambition... he gets a job at a burger place to annoy and frustrate the people in his life who have in turn, annoyed and frustrated him...
what American beauty struggles with is its innate heavy handedness... at times the wisdom dispensed in the movie is trite, or just lame... it suffers from its absurd events, and clichéd ideas of people... if someone doesn't agree with your idea of fun, they're probably in the closet and violent...
still, annette bening gives a great performance... it is funny and charming in places, and it does make you think... a good movie to see to introduce the idea of satire, social commentary, and drama... similar movies i've seen have been slightly better however, like the solid and bruising "safety of objects", or the devastating, vicious "happiness"...
i don't think this movie is a classic, but it is powerful and interesting in places... it's sad that the IMDb doesn't allow decimals, because this would be a 6.7 or so... worthwhile...