Poignant, moving and darkly comic

Rating: 10/10 (9 September 2006)

American Beauty is resoundingly triumphant in everything it wants to be. It is flawless. It would have been a shame if a great film had not been made Alan Ball's outstanding script. Sam Mendes and a great cast succeeded in making a film that should be long remembered.
The 'midlife crisis' theme has been done many times but never this well. Spacey is magnificently dry as the subdued Lester Burnham, trying to regain his lust for life. The crazy situations he begins putting himself into are a source of regular hilarity. This is some of the best black comedy you will ever see but the film has much more to offer. The exploits of the teenagers are equally fascinating. Lester's disgruntled and confused daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and her beautiful but shallow friend Angela (Mena Suvari) make for two contrasting stereotypes of suburban teenage girls. Ricky, a thoughtful and sensitive boy living under the controlling grip of his father shows them how different they really are . The interaction of these characters is thought-provoking and the film does not pull any punches in depicting the issues they face.
American Beauty is stark and brutally frank portrayal of the 'American Dream' gone wrong. Perfectly acted and stunningly photographed by the late Conrad Hall, it stands above other quality films on this subject such as The Ice Storm and Ordinary People.