Even worse the second time around...

Rating: Null/10 (30 August 2001)

For obvious reasons, I don't make it a habit to see twice a movie I loathe the first time. With 'American Beauty', I made an exception - something so universally praised has to have some redeeming qualities, right?
Well, not really.
Kevin Spacey's performance is good. Of all the statuettes scooped up by the film, his was probably the most well-deserved. His character was the most fleshed-out (which, in this film, is saying VERY little), and he showed us Lester from every angle. He made a man contemplating statutory rape seem sympathetic and even downright likable, and that is certainly worthy of praise.
Unfortunately the rest of the cast does not fare so well. I personally believe this is less to do with the skill of the actors than with the horrible, birdcage-liner of a script, although I'm open to arguments otherwise. Annette Bening flails her way through the film until she's virtually unwatchable, Thora Birch plays a to-the-letter stereotype of the sullen teen, and Wes Bentley plays the eccentric artiste. Mena Suvari is probably the strongest of the younger cast, playing on her sexuality while showing enough restraint (which is in short supply in this film) to avoid turning into the sexpot cheerleader cliche.
The tagline is perhaps the most abhorrent thing about this film. 'Look Closer'. In a film as shallow as this, where the idea of materialism and career being secondary to love of family is actually presented, in all seriousness, as a revelation, the idea of 'Looking Closer' is downright pretentious. If 'The Jerry Springer Show' decided to use it as their new tagline, is it not still just a show about adulterous trailer-dwellers and midgets with odd sexual fetishes? Methinks it is.
This isn't an unappreciable film. All things said, its actually wholly entertaining, but the problem is, its a film that thinks its something its not. This is whats known as a Popcorn Movie. Like 'Pearl Harbor', like 'Con Air', 'Armageddon', this is a film simply to entertain. It's mindless entertainment. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that - we all need that sometimes. But there IS something wrong when such a film commands the Oscars and tops critics' lists almost universally - this means the REAL cerebral, important films are being ignored, or aren't getting the credit they deserve.