'There is nothing worse than being ordinary....'

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2000)

Though this line (in one form or another) is repeated three or more times during 'American Beauty' these people ARE ordinary.
There are many people living lives of quiet desperation; what makes the Burnham family different is their attempt to do something about it.
But -- the characters are so finely drawn and realized by the actors that play those characters that none of their actions surprised me.
The preoccupation with guns, the overt homophobia of Colonel Frank Fitts, the sexual boasting of Angela, the video-voyeurism of Ricky: all add up to a predictable -- but no less painful -- conclusion.
Surely half of the $15 million budget must have gone for the (American Beauty) roses -- which make an appearance in nearly every scene.
The performances by Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bently, Mena Suvari (the part Alicia Silverstone would have played if she were younger), Chris Cooper and Peter Gallagher are all so precisely interconnected that there is a true ensemble feeling. A special award should go to Allison Janney as the wife of Colonel Fitts: She is so 'not there,' so vacant, so distant that it was a real acting tour d'force to play such a non-person.
Take the incredible performances, the cinematography and superb editing and you have one of the finest films of this -- or any other year.