Insightful, but not a comedy

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2000)

I would define American Beauty (AB) as a documentary investigating American life as we enter the twenty-first century. Sam Mendes does a superb job depicting almost every major aspect of American lives, while ambitiously investigating aspects of society in a very successful manner. There are subtle and not so subtle implications throughout the film on topics such as relationships, employment, socialization, and violence- just to name a few. The relationships Mendes investigates are not all the same but cover a variety of differences, such as internal and external family relationships, and marriage. Mendes even gives us his cynical views of love through the actions of each of the characters.
Also intertwined in these issues are broader ideals such as living in a patriarchal society and the effects of commerciality and television. All the topics Mendes insightfully manages to address in AB contribute to what I believe to be the main topic here: The results of living in the modern capitalist society (as I was reassured of by a lady wearing a Mao shirt early in the film, as Carolyn Burnham [Annette Bening] stresses over her very competitive job).
The story of Lester Burnham [Kevin Spacey] offers us a view into the life of an ordinary man, but what many viewers don't realize (at least at the theatre I was in) was that the apparent humour was actually making comments on all of our own lives. I believe the film was very adeptly able to portray how disastrously many parts of our society have turned out. And in my opinion, the reactions much of the audience showed to this film exemplified their naivety to the world we are living in.