Spacey sinks the film completely, with some help from the screenplay

Rating: 3/10 (10 February 2019)

The film is a drama and an acidic satire (dratire?) about how the dullness of consumerism/suburbia blinds people to the sublime and the atrocious in everyday life. The screenplay is sharp on these points with each character representing a different amount of sensitivity to the beauty of the everyday world. The script builds these themes around a 42 year-old men having a mid life crisis and having a erotic re-awaking by lusting after a 17 year old girl. The script and direction handle *that* about as well as one can expect. Angela is given a believable characterization to motivate her flirting with Lester. Furthermore, the most overt sexual material is explicitly flights of fancy on Lester's part. Critically, Lester saying no to the ultimate act shows the necessary respect for the issues of consent, age and proper behavior. The film is on a knife's edge throughout its run time with this stuff and it is critical the actor playing Lester does not come off as (too) creepy or predatory. Unfortunately, that actor is Kevin Spacey.
Kevin Spacey has been credibly accused of sexual assault and harassment by several men, who at the time of the harassment were in their late teens-early 20's. I find it impossible to watch the Lester/Angela scenes while ignoring that. This ruins the film completely as you are supposed to find Lester's fate tragic and you are suppose to cheer him on. He is the character who wakes up to the sublimity of everyday life, i.e. the point but given that my skin crawls every time he is on screen the point isn't felt to say the least.
That is the main issue. There other big issue is the film stomps around ego-dystonic homosexuality with too little care. Frank Fitts' story is fine and in a sense believable in of itself. But you spend far too little time with the character to fully appreciate the hell is has been living all his life and unlike every other character he comes across as a flat character. He is a villain when he should be an antagonist. The entire development in the script feels grafted unto the film because Ball needed to kill Lester and he didn't want to have anyone else do it. The ego-dystonic homosexuality of Fitts is a mere plot device. The film suffers from it as a result.
These problems, especially Spacey, are rather unfortunate. The Ricky-Jane coming of age/love story feels very 90's and it deserves to be in a better film. Likewise, Bening gives a great performance of a women who mistakes outward prettiness for inner sublimity. And the cinematography is utterly gorgeous; it's moody with just enough artifice to fit satire of suburbia.
Through I must say it's just a plastic bag you smuck.