Middle America in a frame

Rating: 9/10 (3 June 2015)

Few people will be able to completely uproot their lives and begin it again, but that Lester Burnham's journey in American Beauty: he wipes his hands clean of his pitifully ordinary life and lives life how he wants with his own goals. And to see it is thrilling.
Of course there's a little more to it than a hasty decision to turn it around. Several factors converge in this extraordinarily tight drama: Lester discovers his daughter's friend Angela, a 90s Lolita. He also finds his bland job to be on wobbly ground, and lastly he gets new neighbours, a military family with a strange boy, Ricky. These together create a change in the meek Lester and create a magnificent film.
The real question I had after seeing this film was: "What's wrong with American Beauty?" and then I couldn't answer my question. I'll start with the most well- known aspect of the film, its acting. The entire cast is sharp as their respective characters. Led by Kevin Spacey as Lester, original Yes Man ("I rule!"), you will find something relateable in at least one of the characters, good or bad. Their personalities and actions are entertaining, their motives are all there, and if a character is intended to be likable, you will like them. It's just as a good film should be: honest and unforced, but with just an edge to help you in the right direction.
I've briefly mentioned how tight American Beauty is. The plot is wonderfully self contained but also organic, it feels very plausible. There's a reason things happened as they did when they did. I can't find any plot holes. Much credit has to be given to the script and writers, and bonus points for being an original idea when so many excellent dramas have "Based on" in their credits.
But more than characters, plot and script, American Beauty is also visually wonderful. While much of it is observed as life is, Lester's fantasies have a brilliantly symbolic and colourful side making them stand out as more than dreams. This leads to the deeper aspects of the film, such as recurring symbols, numerous metaphors (the bag...) and of course the moral.
For a film concentrating on failure, I found a very positive message out of the film, and that was to enjoy life and all the beautiful things in it, and to never trap yourself. Like the tag, look closer, find yourself looking past the black and white (into the red?) and see beauty. It all sounds cheesy, but unlike Spacey's later work Pay It Forward, it doesn't come off the screen that way.
From a cynic to seizing the day, American Beauty is a dark film with a big smiley face over it that blends until its climax. An engrossing fiction that for many isn't too far from real life, I think this film can speak to people differently as you age, and that power to draw different meanings from different viewings is a sign of a true film. A full film and a fantastic way to close out a millennium. 9.4/10