I don't think I like the destination, but it's one hell of a journey!

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2000)

American Beauty is one the most outstanding directorial debuts of recent years, and one of the most beautiful, thought-provoking and human films to have come out of Hollywood in a long time. Narrated by Kevin Spacey's character, Lester Burnham, the story relates the melodramas, micro-dramas, and hidden inner lives of suburban America, culminating in an explosive climax.
Lester, at the start of the film, tells that he's going to die, so in one sense the film, as it approaches the end, becomes something of a whodunnit. But it's so much more. At the start of the film Lester is barely alive, merely going through the motions of his humdrum suburban life. Quite frankly, and by his own admission, he's a loser. However he's shaken out of his torpor by an encounter with the son of the new neighbours, Ricki, and the sight of his daughter's friend, Angela, with whom he becomes fixated. Overhearing a conversation between the two girls, he decides through sheer force of will, to become a different man - an iron-pumping, dope-smoking, employer-blackmailing übermensch.
This both shocks and disturbs his uptight realtor wife, who seems to have traded in the bloom of youth for security, a big house, and a front garden full of red roses. No longer able to bust her husband's balls, she finds her own diversions, forcing her and Lester even further apart.
Meanwhile Ricki from next door has captivated the younger Burnham, Jane, and struck a profitable relationship with Lester. But his Marine colonel father, a barely suppressed cauldron of violence and conflicting emotions, is watching him, and eventually jumps to the wrong conclusion, setting off the climactic chain of events...
American Beauty is almost perfect. Almost. My only qualm is with the death of Lester. We know he's going to die, but by the end of the movie we don't want him to, as we've come to love the guy for his beauty and humanity. He transgresses the rules of suburban life by striking out and going his own way. So is the film a morality play? Is Lester ultimately paying the price for not playing by the rules? Is the film adhering to another Hollywood convention? If so, it sucks.
Personally, I don't believe this is film's intention, but the result does mean supporting a conservative morality. This is a shame, because no doubt the Right will use the film to draw the conclusion that if you break the rules, you have to pay the price.
I don't think that I like the destination, but Lester and co took us on one hell of a journey.