Humorous, Dark & Dramatic.......

Rating: Null/10 (14 October 1999)

I will admit that I wasn't particularly keen to see this movie when it came out. It didn't really seem to have a major reading on my "I must go see this movie" meter. But, I'm glad a couple friends did want to see it and dragged me out along for the ride. Having seen it I can say that I would have been sorry to have missed such fine performances.
Kevin Spacey is the central character in this black comedy/drama as the henpecked, overworked, and verging on middle-aged Lester Burnham . The narrative at the beginning tells you that he was murdered, but who did it is almost incidental in comparison to everything that happens to him before that point. Somewhere in his past, he gave up his dreams and his ability to fight for them in exchange for status quo and a comfortable home. His success-driven, bitch-on-wheels wife, Carolyn Burnham is played by Annette Bening. Her portrayal of a Stepford Wife-like real estate agent who seems to do everything just right is soon revealed as a woman on the verge of some kind of breakdown every 5 minutes.
The dysfunctional couple does have a daughter, Jane (played by Thora Burch) who is smack dab in the middle of her "The entire world is evilÂ…..and so I will be too" brooding adolescent phase. You can't help but be sympathetic, however, when her parents are more interested in quarreling with each other than they are in just talking to their only child. This role is a Grand Canyon-sized departure for Thora Burch, who has, until this point, been the pint-sized and pig-tailed, cute-as-a-button kid in various roles since she was 6 years old. If you look past the grunge-look dye job in this movie, you might recognize her as playing the daughter to Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan character in two different Tom Clancy movies from years past.
Things get really interesting in this story when new neighbors move in next door. Teenaged video voyeur, Ricky Fitts (played by Wes Bentley) becomes drawn to his introverted and intriguing neighbor-girl, Jane. Although seeming a bit on the strange side, he does have an eye for interesting visuals that is a bit intriguing. What's more intriguing though, is his "double life" between playing the dutiful son to his Marine Colonel father and almost catatonic mother and yet secretly dealing high-end pot out of his dresser drawer to any and all with the means to purchase it.
The final pieces are put into place when Spacey's character falls head over heels for a beautiful Barbie doll on his daughter's cheerleading squad, and frightens everyone around him as he starts changing his attitude and his life. It's terribly uplifting and somehow freeing to watch him liberate himself from a job he hates, a life he's bored with, and a middle-aged body he's neglected. There are some seriously funny moments where you look at the screen and think "boy, I wish I had the guts to do that".
While some might consider some of the points to be a bit romanticized, I don't think that there's one of us who doesn't know these people or, even more frightening, isn't one of them ourselves. This movie is graced with some wonderful filming visuals that actually make a 40-something year old man's crush on a teenager a romantic rather than lustful concept. He's not in love with her body, per se, but the whole idea of actually being the man that a girl like that could be in love with. Spacey's performance in this is truly superb, and is alone worth an exorbitant movie ticket price. I smell multiple Oscars in this movie's future.