Ugly, U.S.A.

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2013)

I've seen this one a few times before, and I never liked it as much as I did the first time; that probably had something to do with certain positive circumstances I can't go into here. In any case, 'American Beauty' has a couple of fine scenes that always greatly amuse me. You know, Angela's dance, the dance of the plastic bag and Jane and Ricky's intimate moments for instance.
At many other moments, though, I wish Sam Mendez had toned it down considerably. Now it feels much like an over-stylized pastiche of concentrated misery with too many angles (i.e. characters). A lot of dialogue (and monologue) feels too contrived, as does the whole story - though some of it works really well, I must add. So I can't say that it's a bad film, but for a black comedy it isn't always sharp and funny enough and for a drama it doesn't go deep enough, mainly because it has too many things going on.
And then there is Kevin Spacey. I love him in films such as 'Se7en' or 'The Usual Suspects' where he plays no less than iconic bad guys, but here there are only bits and pieces that really convince me. Most other actors are quite convincing, like Gary Cooper, but his role of homophobic, militaristic (helpless) husband and father is one of those 'things' that feel so overly contrived - though, again, there is a lot of potential.
6 out of 10.