Anarchy in the suburbs

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2000)

The story is back. The only special effect that will never go out of fashion says Sam Mendes, the director of American Beauty, a sharp-edged triumph of direction, acting and story. Here is a story about anarchy that resides not in the minds of terrorists, but in the lives of people whose every move is designed and calculated, people whose marriages are a sham, people who lack compassion and tolerance and whose lives behind their white picket fences are emotionally stunted. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a forty-two year old piece of damaged humanity who is married to an uncomprehending, neurotic wife Carolyn (Annette Bening). They live in a pleasant, pretty house and have a daughter Jane (Thora Birch) , all gloomy resentment and dourness. This may seem on the surface to be another dissection of the human condition but it is much, much more. Sam Mendes has taken Alan Ball's script and crafted a film that is compelling and deeply moving and, ultimately, a complex and richly layered chronicle of our troubled times. Into this world come the strange young man next door Ricky (Wes Bentley) who has flashes of insight through his video camera and his parents Chris Cooper and Allison Janney) a retired colonel of the Marine Corps who harbours more than a streak of fascism and homophobia and the almost invisible mother who has all but retreated into her own personal Twilight Zone. By the time the film ends, all these characters have changed and have made their escapes in one way or another but we as an audience have been deeply shocked and moved by what has unfolded. This is a savage satire where the title of the film takes on different shades of meaning once you have seen the film and the repeated motif of red roses and rose petals take on layers of meaning that enhance and accent this story of a society in pain. Kevin Spacey brings brilliance to the downbeat, sorrowful Lester and his infatuation with Angela (Mena Suvari), a high-school cheerleader, traces the course of his redemption as he begins to sort out what is and what is not important in life. All of his attempts at "self-improvement" are pathetic but they are born out of clear, honest cleansing anger and rage as he becomes aware of his shortcomings - emotional and physical. Lester is one of the great characters of cinema. Annette Bening's Carolyn, lacquered and hysterical, has an affair with Buddy (Peter Gallagher) in a deluded desire to soak up some of his success as a real-estate king and fails to see that her husband and her marriage are in danger of imploding. Lester constantly imagines her the way she was when he married her but she is a long, long way from those times. The household has moved from mere dysfunction to anarchy. This film boasts some superb cinematography and editing - the wide-screen compositions are breathtaking - and a satirical use of music to accentuate the images. Incisive, intelligent and witty - an astonishing film - a beauty.