American Freakshow

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2010)

This film is without a doubt a classic. It has won a whopping 88 awards, including, but not limited to five Oscars, one Grammy and 3 Golden Globes. It has been mentioned and spoofed in dozens of other movies, shows, cartoons and whatnot. Some might even consider it a cult film. But does the movie really live up to its reputation?
Let's start with the MAIN CHARACTERS. American Beauty centers around the typical American-dream-family Burnham, living in the suburbs of an unnamed, typical American city. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), the father of the family, is the main character and narrator of this movie. He is a 42 year old advertising agent, moaning about his boring, dull life. His wife Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) is an unsuccessful realtor, unhappy with her unused potential. And their 16-year-old daughter Jane (Thora Birch) coping with typical teenager problems like being embarrassed about her nerdy parents or uncertainty of life.
As for the PLOT, Lester himself narrates his last days of his life post mortem, claiming he will be dead soon. In the beginning he is a self-proclaimed loser without any joy or excitement in his life. But this is about to change when he meets Janes friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and immediately has the hots for her. After overhearing a conversation between Angela and Jane, where Angela tells Jane her feelings about Lester ("cute, but should work out a little"), he is getting more self confident and starts changing his lifestyle by working out, buying a new car and smoking pot he buys from the boy next door.
Meanwhile, Jane builds a relationship with this particular boy named Ricky Fits (Wes Bentley), who is filming her secretly through the bedroom window. Though Ricky is technically a voyeur, Jane starts to like him, because he is so different as he can see beauty in random things. And she happens to like people as different as she is, so these two end up being a couple.
In the meantime Carolyn begins an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) to satisfy her sexual needs. Few scenes later Kane breaks up with her again due to the expensive divorce he would have to pay for.
Eventually, Colonel Frank Fits (Chris Cooper), Rickys father, suspects his son of having a relationship with Lester, because in one of his videos of Jane he captured Lester working out without wearing any clothes. Thinking Lester is homosexual, Frank kisses Lester, who of course rebuffs him, revealing the Colonel himself is homosexual.
After that Lester and Angela finally come together and are about to get it on, when Angela confesses she is still a virgin. Lester doesn't seem to like this and instead wants to have a chat with her now about their personal problems. When Angela leaves for the bathroom, Lester gets shot from behind, while Carolyn is coming home, Jane and Ricky are upstairs in Janes room and Angela was in the bathroom. As it turns out, the Colonel was the one who murdered Lester, because he didn't fulfill the Colonel's homo-erotic desires.
After his death, Lester recaps what happened in his life, coming to the conclusion, that it is hard to be mad, when there is so much beauty in the world.
This covers the plot. But is it a good movie? Well, as bland as the story might look at first glance, it has actually some clever ideas. This movie deals with the problem a man can have in a midlife crisis, the American dream and homophobia, so there might be one or two lessons one could learn. But my problem is the credibility of this movie. There are just some unbelievable and unrealistic scenes that, I think, would never happen in real life. To tell just two of them. I just can't believe Jane falls in love with Ricky. Think about it, he was harassing her by filming her without her permission, day and night. That whole "there is so much beauty in something." stuff is just a cheap excuse. And the second problem I have is why do Lester and Angela even come together? I mean, Lester is playing with pedophilia here, and Angela even likes it. It's just weird.
All in all, the movie is decent, it has it's illogical moments, but also smart, deep ones. Some might consider it funny, tragic, gross or boring. I think it is okay. And judging by the success the movie had many people have liked it.