The Facade Isn't All That Beautiful

Rating: 9/10 (29 January 2002)

_American Beauty_ is an enigmatic film and, as such, some viewers will be delighted by its proclivity toward the sardonically ironic. However, there is an equal amount of disapprobation with the film, especially among viewers who know more is going on than what they comprehend.
_American Beauty_ is, in some respects, English director Sam Mendes' response to the "American Dream." And it is not a favorable response. To understand the origins of this film's premise, one need only reflect upon the burgeoning post-war economy of 1950's America, particularly the "culture of suburbia." Suburbia, capstoned with plastic pink flamingos and white picket fences, became the idealistic movement of, in reference to Tom Brokaw, "the Greatest Generation." Suburbia equated to three ideals: status, unity, and conformity--the "American Dream" of a generation that rose up from the ashes of poverty, war, and anxiety.
Unlike the popular culture movement of the 1950s, which endorsed the preceding three principles within the context of such classic television shows as _Leave It to Beaver_ and _The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet_, the 1990s (an era in which the sons and daughters of "The Greatest Generation" found themselves in a position of political and social power--Bill Clinton was the first U.S. president to have been born after the Second World War) witnessed a deconstruction of the "Ozzie and Harriet" cultural archetypes. In an age of political correctness and social questioning, the facade of status, unity, and conformity (the principles of the "Greatest Generation") were exposed for what they truly were--Status, as epitomized in the white house with the white picket fence, inhabited by the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant household; Unity, as demonstrated by a marriage not based on the principles of fidelity, compassion, and love, but on financial need and social climbing; and Conformity, daughters who obey their moms and dads, and moms who cook for their husbands and do not question their roles or the roles of their neighbors, be they two male "roommates" or the African-American couple who must be "moving on up."
That is what Sam Mendes seeks to show in _American Beauty_. Beauty is a facade and so is anything American. Although Mendes is not the only director to explore this theme in recent cinema, one can certainly recall such films as _Pleasantville_ and _American History X_, he succeeds at getting this point across to his audience because he is not directly influenced by those principles; he is a British director whose purpose is to be unbiasedly and unabashedly didactic.
I give this film 9 out of 10 points. The reason I chose not to give it a perfect score was, more than anything else, the fact that Mendes tries too hard with some of his visual motifs--the roses, the bag in the wind, and the young, virginal cheerleader. Both Spacey and Bening turn in accomplished performances as the antithesis of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, and Thora Birch successfully demonstrates that "Wednesday Addams" does exist in the "perfect" world. _American Beauty_ will be disheartening, especially if you understand the commentary it makes, but to fully appreciate it, you must realize its goal: the facade isn't all that beautiful . . . in America.