Modern archetypes? I don't think so. A dystopic whodunit.

Rating: 6/10 (25 February 2000)

I'm surprised at the popularity of this film, as it felt like a fable, but instead of archetypal characters, is populated mostly with contemporary stereotypes: The husband in midlife crisis; the status-starved wife; the body-image disordered daughter; her self-esteem deficient girlfriend; etc. Have these stereotypes crossed a line in the collective unconscious to become, as some have suggested, "Modern archetypes?" I don't think so. Archetypes are by definition very old, so for something modern to be one, it must in actuality be connecting to the deep-rooted, old form. With the exception of Lester and Rickey, who seemed to be different sorts of pilgrims, all these basically dysfunctional characters seemed to me to map to a single, fairly static archetypes; the lunatic. While feared and revered, it doesn't do well to have too many lunatics in one story. Archetypal tales stick with one. A day after seeing it, "American Beauty" is already fading for me. I appreciated its flawed, but persistent, allusions to beauty and wonder, but was mostly caught up in a mildly amusing contest with my movie-going companions to correctly solve this dystopic whodunit.