An American Classic!!

Rating: 9/10 (4 October 1999)

This film is a masterpiece... I had heard some reviewers comparing this film to The Graduate not knowing whether that was just hype or what. After seeing this film last night, I can tell you that this is not hype - American Beauty is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen while at the same time one of the saddest. As the Graduate took you behind the closed doors of suburbia and revolved around Dustin Hoffman's rebellion against society's expectations, American Beauty takes you back to suburbia and is centered around Kevin Spacey's desire to rediscover the man he used to before a marriage, fatherhood, work and suburbia destroyed what he used to be. Spacey, playing a disgruntled middle aged married man named Lester Burnham, is the centerpiece of this movie and he is magnificent. His performance is intense yet never over the top. He is also very funny (Oscar voters -> While it is early on, I doubt you will find a more worthy Best Actor Oscar candidate than Spacey). Annette Bening is also wonderful as his wife Carolyn whose finds her marriage and her relationship with her daughter crumbling away. I never knew she had this type of performance in her. Thora Birch is also powerful in her role as their daughter Jane. But for my money the most amazing performances in this movie came from Wes Bentley as Rick Fitts and Chris Cooper as Rick's father Col. Fitts. Bentley is phenomenal as the boy next door who can see things for what they really are through his video camera. He is perhaps the "smartest" and "wisest" person in this film because he has not lost track of what truly matters in life, even though his homophobic ex-marine father constantly presses him to become a better man. Lastly, kudos to Mena Suvari who is this year's American women with a great role in American Pie and a nice dramatic turn in American Beauty. I look forward to seeing her again.
There were great performances in this movie but without a great story there would be nothing. This script is terrific, it zips along at a nice pace and the dialogue is so witty. I think it is tough to do comedy, tough to do drama but to do both so well in the same movie is an achievement. If this movie does not win a best screenplay Oscar - then I wanna see the movie that does win it because that script is gonna have to be phenomenal. Lastly the direction and cinematography was right on the mark!! Go see this movie, they don't make films like this often.