A Pretentious Failure

Rating: 1/10 (28 December 2005)

I feel sad for people who see "depth" in this flick. The only thing that lurks below the surface of American Beauty is hate... skillet-deep, self-indulgent HATE. Similarly, the film does nothing to show what "looking closer" (its mantra) does for anyone aside from turning them into pitiful/pitiless scumbags. Example: after their epiphany with the paper/trash and Spacey's death, the two kids look coldly at the dead father and then turn to trash the cheerleader on their way out the door. What sort of humanity or beauty is there in this? Suvari turns out to be the only humane character in the flick, and these two droids tell her SHE'S got problems/is essentially trash? Please. If you listen to the director's comments, you hear that their actions are supposed to be the closing of a circle of sorts. I.e. The boy again sees beauty in an unlikely place. Again, please. The kids are vampires, sucking on beauty with no intention or ability to pass it on, much less radiate it. This is only one example of the utter lack of depth and humanity of American Beauty. I cannot think of a worse failure than this film.