"Beauty" is barely skin deep

Rating: Null/10 (30 September 1999)

It's rare that I disagree with so many critics and other viewers about a movie, and to my surprise, that happened in this movie with two of my favorite screen actors: Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. I would willingly watch Spacey read a phone book, and Bening can do no wrong in my book. Yet despite their absolutely top-notch performances, great direction, and snappy dialog, I can't put this movie on the same level as other viewers have for two major (to me) reasons:
1. The Burnham family is initially in a state of deep dysfunction. They don't talk; they don't often get together, and they appear to evince a lot of symptoms of a family with deep problems. But why? Problems of this sort are usually caused by way too much career involvement on the part of one or both spouses, substance abuse, or some pretty strong personality problems - yet none of these is happening. Carolyn has time to cook those dinners (asparagus and all!); Lester is only working one job, and neither of them shows any sign of real burnout. In fact, those dinners are a symptom of what's wrong with the script: families that take the time to eat together regularly typically have far fewer problems than those where they never do. A far more realistic scenario would have been Carolyn never being home for dinner or weekends: that's what real estate agents do. The point is that if this is intended even slightly as a cautionary fable, we are not told how they got into this state. A contrast is the film "Ordinary People" (which this film resembles in many ways), in which the precipitating incident was the brother's death. Here we are expected to take it on faith that these smart and relatively with-it people have allowed their relationship to deteriorate to this point. I know a lot of suburban families with teenagers - I live in American suburbia myself - and I don't know any families like this: that have deteriorated to this point of mutual loathing.
2. The other beef I have is with the characters. They are what I call Hollywood characters, in that they all are more recognizable from having seen their ancestors on the big and little screens far more than in real life. Carolyn is a caricature of Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People; Col. Fitts (next door) is the way-too-controlling ex-military sicko we've seen over and over again in Pat Conroy's books and on TV. Angela is straight out of Fast Times at Ridgemont High as well as Beverly Hills 90210; Jane, dialog and all, is out of My So-Called Life; I could go on, but you get the point. The only characters that were fairly original were Spacey's and Ricky, the neighbor kid. Now, for Hollywood characters, they were well written and I liked/disliked/empathized with all of them as expected - they weren't cardboard cutouts. But they were the type of character written by people who spend most of their time in the movie or TV business - and I will never know people like them.
I think that the excellence of so many other parts of this movie either overcame these objections or seduced a lot of people into thinking that this movie is better than it is. It has crackling dialog, and the climax is amazing in how it brings resolution to so many story lines woven together. I liked Lester's redemption and the last line enormously. It's just that I came away with a slightly sour taste in my mouth from this NutraSweet film.