A 9 is a bit much

Rating: 8/10 (20 February 2000)

I watched three films this weekend- Goodbye, Mr Chips (1939), Taxi Driver and American Beauty. American Beauty came a close third. Perhaps I will grow to love it more than the other two, but I don't think so.
I think the score of 9 reflects this film's quality only when compared to recent releases. Perhaps we are so starved of intelligent film-making that the score is a measure of our gratitude to Mr Mendes.
It is good though - Kevin Spacey deserves all the praise heaped on him in the other comments - but bottom line, I looked at my watch after just over an hour. I thought Annette Benning was a bit of a let down after the hype, she didn't hold my attention like Spacey.
I think I liked the underlying message too, though I'm not quite sure what it was!
By IMDb standards I think it deserves a score of between a 7 and an 8. (My score would be 7.4.)
Go see it, you won't see much better in the cinema this year, but it wont be scoring 9 here in 10 years time.