"American Beauty" finds the beauty of every story no matter how treacherous and reaches boundaries unlike any other film.

Rating: Null/10 (26 July 2014)

Spectacle's are clearly vulnerable to being enjoyed by the world and are easy to get access to. Seeing a firework show, looking at a beautiful person, enjoying the scenery of a mountain range, and seeing a world- series baseball game finish in an intense inning are all full of beauty in their own ways. What about the simple lives of people no matter how they live or act? Writer Alan Ball creates a masterpiece of writing about enjoying the simplicity of life and finding the beauty of every moment. Kevin Spacey gives a brilliant performance as Lester Burnham, a depressed middle-class American who is unsatisfied with his uneventful and crashing life. His relationships with his wife and daughter are strained and tense, his job causes him extreme stress and he has nothing to escape from it. The only sense of happiness Lester now gets is having interactions with his daughters beautiful friend that causes hope for Lester. Lester's wife Carolyn is played perfectly by Annette Benning. Carolyn is rather harsh and cold to Lester and is having an affair. Their daughter Jayne is constantly observed by their neighbor's son Ricky, who is very artistic and finds the beauty of absolutely everything in any shape, size, fashion or form. He is obsessed with Jayne and his motivations and love for her are interesting because deep down we all know how we have that urge to strive for our unrequited lovers even though most of us are too shy and fragile to face criticism. Ricky lives with his deeply anti-gay father who is cast perfectly as Chris Cooper. The more and more this story goes on, the less beauty we see. Then why is this film called "American Beauty"? Because writer Alan Ball and director Same Mendes show how diverse and special each character is and show how dynamic and deep we all are on the inside. Sam Mendes portrays the middle-class American lifestyle brilliantly by not overdoing or forcing the look of the setting and coaching of the actors in the slightest. Instead we see the harsh reality of struggling lifestyles and how with love and inspiration our emotions can be changed in a snap. Mendes examines simple people and general people with feelings, sexuality, weaknesses, and motifs to show how each ordinary individual is in fact extraordinary and not at all simple or weak. What's really moving about "American Beauty" isn't just its classic acting and tremendous film-making, but rather the boundaries it takes. A somewhat quirky character ensemble and harshly situated plot end up leaving us to see how there is always a way out of negativity and that in order to achieve happiness we need to see the beauty everyday has no matter what is occurring at our lives. "American Beauty" is a beautiful and brilliant American film classic!