An American Truth

Rating: 10/10 (10 January 2007)

This film is a gripping and disturbing look at the breakdown of the modern American family structure. It hit so close to home for me and undoubtedly for anyone else raised in suburbia in the past two decades. In high school I used to walk out of my cookie cutter house after witnessing a pair of two irrational parents argue about the most ridiculous, trivial things and wonder if this was normal, while staring at the other cookie cutter homes along the street, and I thought, were a lot of other teenagers walking out of their front doors wondering the same thing? Aside from the the truths brilliant writer Alan Ball has brought to light, there are so many aspects of this film that are just beautiful, from the color red being used for symbolism and dramatic affect with the rose petals, the red front door, and Lester's blood streaming bright red across the table. As dark as this movie is, it can also be extremely funny. In the end, the feeling I was left with the most is just how important our lives and interpersonal relationships are, and that we should step back sometimes and make sure or vision is not getting clouded from what is really important. Being able to say at the end of the day that your life is a beautiful one, in all of it's mistakes and all of it's regrets, because all life is beautiful, and we should treasure it.