A wonderful, complex film.

Rating: 9/10 (29 September 1999)

After over two years of hyped-up, special-effects driven movies, it looks like "real" movies are finally making a comaback. The latest addition to the list of quality films comming out lately is "American Beauty."
The movie presents us with what seems like the ideal setting for any American: a life in the suburbs with a middle-class nuclear family. But we see that undeaneath the surface, things are not as ideal as they appear. Kevin Spacey is a man working a job he hates with an overbearing, slightly psychotic wife and an angst-ridden teenage daughter. Their new neighbors are an ex-marine, his teenage son who videotapes people and his really passive, unemotional wife. Thrown into the mix is the daughter's nymphomaniac friend who ends up inspiring Spacey to change his life, in a number of rash, illogical and not so wholesome ways.
Over the course of the movie, we see that there's more to each and every single one of these people than meets the eye. And some of these aspects are more obvious than others. Each one of them has some sort of secret or dark side of their personalities that they try to hide under a facade of "normality." None of these people are happy with their lives or themselves, although they try to cover it up as best they can. Their feelings and insecutities continue to build up inside them right up until the film's bittersweet conclusion.
Although none of the characters in the film could be considered likeable, they aren't presented in such a manner that the viewer can't muster up some degree of sympathy for them. All the elements of this film come together. It's very well directed. They acting is top-notch (even if Annette Benning threatens to go a little over the top on occasion), the script and dialogue are of top quality and the score is really good. My only complaint about the film is the opening line where Kevin Spacy says "Within a year, I'll be dead." This gives away stuff that the audience would rather not know and slightly lessens the impact of the film.
"American Beauty" is the best movie I've seen this year so far and I certainly do not hesitate to recommend it. The somewhat downbeat nature of this film may keep it from getting nominated by the Academy Awards, but I really hope it will.