Almost perfect

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 1999)

American Beauty is smart without insulting it's audience's intelligence. It is highly funny, yet incredibly tragic. Beautifully directed with images of symbolism hidden in swatches of color and to top it off, wonderfully acted, especially by Annette Bening.
Reading the user comments for this movie solidified what I have always thought of the movie viewing public. Most of you are in it for the face value. Few of you can see behind the "story" to get to the real idea behind a film and the see the overall beauty of a well scripted and directed film. The plot is always only half of the big picture. The other half is the way the story is presented to the viewer. American Beauty is presented to it's audience with near perfection.
(SPOILER ALERT) Had the film not started out with the videotaped conversation of his daughter, this film would be a perfect example of what great film making is. It put too much emphasis on the teens incriminating themselves. (END SPOILER ALERT)
Every film buff that I know that saw this movie loved it. The friends of mine who like to see a movie and give no thought beyond what the actors are saying to each other liked it for the most part. One of those friends enjoyed it until the end. The film buffs all cringed their teeth and thought to themselves "You don't get it. It couldn't have been any other way".
Plain and simple: if you love film beyond just the fluff, chance are you will like this movie. If a movie only sticks with you because there are tits or Arnie in it than this is not the film for you.