There's a charming irony in missing the point of a movie all about the point....

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2003)

The ongoing assumption that Lester Burnham is some kind of man apart denies the very point of American Beauty: that social convention frequently only exists for its own sake, and that the preconceptions we're brainwashed into believing about life and how we should lead it are often simply unnecessary, or even detrimental to achieving personal happiness. In other words, he's regained his sanity; it's the rest of society that's the man apart.
Lester Burnham's one of the healthiest characters in modern cinema; he comes to realize that simply following common social convention -- the white picket fence, the cubicle job, the kids' high school events -- just isn't the life some people should be leading. It doesn't insult those conventions; it merely points out that people are often driven by personal instincts and are happier if they don't let other people's perceptions get in the way of pursuing those instincts. And it realizes that the anxiety we harbor over those perceptions -- and their stifling effect -- can ruin lives.

In other words, we all worry way too much.
The movie, to a degree, mutes that message by being frankly honest and pointing out that personal fulfillment, while generally better than the dishonest alternatives, comes with certain pricetags , particularly a degree of selfishness toward people who can only understand a conventional life. "And you're boring. And you're totally ordinary. And you know it," as Ricky Fitts points out to Angela, the cheerleader who wants to be a model, and doesn't realize that wanting to stand out merely for her looks is the most ordinary thing of all.
The film also points out the danger in being more open-minded: that someone is likely to take violent offense to that which they don't understand. American Beauty is so emotionally honest with regard to the necessity of replacing social convention with raw decency, it should be in school curriculum.