What could've been a bulls hit movie about losers, came out as genius.

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2007)

Lester Burham is the biggest loser in motion picture history. He is a terrible father and an even worse husband. He seems to have lost the will to live and curses everyone and everything around him. His wife Caroline is also a loser who makes everything match, always attempts to look her best, attempts to make everything around her look its best, and tries to put everything in a neat and orderly fashion as she holds on to her real estate business by a thread. There daughter Janie who is angry, bitter, and always takes s hit from her best friend, can also be considered a loser. I'm sorry if I'm sounding mean but this is how they are presented.
When new neighbors move across the street a stir of events occur (this has nothing to do with that, they are not supernatural) that include Lester falling in love with Janie's best friend while he works out, rebels against authority, makes risky moves, smokes dope and does whatever he wants to do just like when he was in his twenties. Caroline begins to cheat on her husband with a wealthy real estate agent and begins to empower herself against her husband. Janie falls in love with the new neighbor kid who films things that are beautiful and he falls in love with her.
With this plot set up I have presented you, this movie could've been about a bunch of messed up losers. Instead, every character is presented in a very human and real way that makes you understand their motivations and somehow know them. You understand the beauty behind every little thing in the film, nothing is over-exaggerated, they don't overwhelm you with metaphors or put too much into one character and not enough into the other. "American Beauty", in itself, is like a rose.
The real genius come at the end. It wraps up in a series of events that are brilliantly plotted, and the outcome is so tragic it is stunning; but even after this tragedy, you feel like your in a sea of happiness and eternal bliss and that's all due to Lester's final monologue as you see what truly happened. Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world you can't be mad at anything and when all this beauty builds up the only result is a sea of happiness.
"American Beauty" shows us the beauty in life and inspires us to just look a little closer. 'Tis very rare for a film to have a climax so sad but a conclusion so beautiful.