Amazing

Rating: Null/10 (23 June 2000)

This is a movie about people. People whom you might see in the subway, people who might have sold you your house, and kids with whom your kids go (or will go) to school.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey, THE MAN,) is a loser (by the characters own admission) rebelling against his dreary, bang-on-a-brick-wall-and-make-your-bosses-rich job, who suddenly snaps and finds his utopia in a mixture of release from responsibility, and living for the moment. Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), his wife, was once a fun loving, happy woman. That is, if fun and happiness can be described as running up to the rooftops and flashing the traffic helicopters. She is now caught up in an unsatisfactory marriage, and her "stuff". Jane Burnham (Thora Birch), their daughter thinks her father is a lame excuse for one, and her dissatisfaction rises to disgust when she finds out that he has a crush on her classmate.
This movie is built around our man Lester, and the story is a narration by him, announcing in the very beginning that he will soon be dead. So the narrator is a dead man. Talk about retrospective narration.
Throw in a guy next door, dealing in genetically engineered mind altering substances, and spending his spare time video taping 'beauty' (see the film, you'll see what i mean) as a love interest for the daughter Jane.
Also factor in this guy's dad - an ex armyman - with a desire for "structure and discipline", with strong homophobic tendencies. To that add a nice finishing touch of the seemingly "perfect" girl from school -Angela (Meena Suvari), and you have enough characters to make 5 movies in the least.
The trick here is getting all of them into one. This movie does a fantastic job. Each character is so vivid in it's black and whites and greys. Those beautiful beautiful greys...
But maybe this movie is not about people. Maybe it's about the "American Dream". Maybe it's about the "American Family". Maybe it's about these two "American Things", and how the different characters try to get at them.
But again, maybe this movie is not about that either! Maybe it is about rebellion. each character rebels in his/her own way.
Maybe it is about none of those things. Maybe it is all those things. Hey it's even a whodunit! It is definitely about beauty. American Beauty. About how and where each of the characters finds beauty. and by extension, it is a movie made by it's characters. Funny, believable,...characters.
Everybody in this movie gets their characters to jump out at you. It is an acting treat. But, Kevin Spacey rules. No doubt about it. Spacey has this gift. He can say one thing with utmost conviction, while displaying a contrary emotion that the character does not yet fully understand. And he does this in a way that you understand the characters confusion. This is something totally brilliant. I've mentioned that Lester snaps. But it's smoother than that. It's not a one scene "snap". He *slowly* changes into this different person. the character he plays is pathetically comic, and profoundly tragic, and Spacey does a great job. Wes Bentley (as Ricky Fitts) does another fantastic job. He plays a complex character that takes in his surroundings and takes a good look at them. He is what he wants you to see him to be. He is at the same time eerily fragile, and confidently magnetic. I'm definitely going to keeping my eyes open for this guy...
This is definitely a movie for the heart. (Yup.. I know that sounds corny, but the movie is easy to feel yet hard to describe.)
This is the film of the year. It deserved all the Oscars it got. Story, Acting, Depth, Imagery, Comedy, everything is just right. This movie is just simply amazing. It is far more dark and important than it seems. Go see the movie. Take back your own definition of beauty, reality and the knowledge that you have seen one of the most beautiful movies made about life in everyday America.