American Ugly

Rating: 6/10 (11 August 2006)

Much-praised film about a man facing mid-life crisis in suburbia, dreaming of playing Humbert Humbert to a Lolita that is his daughter's friend. There is only one word to describe this film: pretentious. Mendes thinks he is making the Great American Motion Picture but it is populated with cookie-cutter characters and it superficially touches on what the filmmakers regard as important themes. The acting is mediocre at best. Spacey gives the kind of performance that the Academy loves and awarded him with the Oscar but his acting here can be best described as mugging. Benning does not fare much better as his desperate wife.