A Film with its Finger on the Pulse

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2009)

"My name is Lester Burnham. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This is my life. I am 42 years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead. Of course, I don't know that yet, and in a way, I'm dead already. Look at me... jerking off in the shower. This will be the high point of my day. It's all downhill from here. That's my wife Carolyn. See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs? That's not an accident. That's our next-door-neighbor Jim, and that's his lover Jim"
That opening narration is a terrific invitation to "American Beauty", a dead-on depiction of sexual fantasies and foibles in suburbia. Writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes construct an amazingly intuitive and artful picture. The cinematography (Conrad L. Hall) and music (Thomas Newman) are perfect. The entire cast is marvelous. Kevin Spacey plays his "Lester" to perfection - the moment when he decides NOT to indulge in a fantasy is just as uplifting as it would have been otherwise; it is his salvation.
********** American Beauty (9/8/99) Sam Mendes ~ Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley