Another example of an excellent but largely misunderstood movie.

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2001)

American Beauty is another one of those movies that everyone seems to vote for as the Best Picture of the last ten years or so that did not deserve a Best Picture Oscar (yeah, you've seen the polls). This is a perfect example of a widespread misunderstanding of the quality of the film. American Beauty is not a satire of the typical American family, as I've often heard it called. Nor is it a childish comedy on the level with Road Trip or American Pie, as I've also been shocked to hear it compared to. It is a film about America's obsession with superficial beauty and, perhaps even more, the complications and problems that come as a result of trying too hard to conform to the norms of modern society  associating happiness with financial success and whatnot.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is one of these people who has gotten the supposed cushy office job, he lives in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, has a beautiful and wealthy wife, and appears to be an all-around successful man. When we see closer into his life, however, we see that even though everything looks stable from the outside, his entire life is meaningless and falling apart. His wife does not respect him, she cheats on him, and their sex life is non-existent, his daughter is embarrassed by him, he realizes that he has a pointless job at which he is wasting his life away, and he knows that if he doesn't do something about all of this, he'll die with a healthy bank account and an empty soul.
Lester decides to throw away all of the meaningless crap that he has accumulated in his life and have fun. He quits his office job, which he hates, and gets a job at a fast food restaurant, which he surprisingly enjoys, he smokes pot with the neighbor's son, and he fantasizes about his daughter's friend, curiously named Angela. Is any of this wrong? Clearly, there is some debate about whether or not a 40-year-old man can, in good conscience, fantasize about a high school girl, more than any other of the questionable occurrences in the film. Personally, I think that this moral diversion comes as a result of his poor choices earlier in life which led to his current unhappiness and deviating thoughts. This is just another point that the movie is trying to get across. This is a guy who tried for his whole life to be socially and financially accepted, and look at how miserable and pathetic he is. You can complain all you want about this curious relationship, but keep in mind that at the end of the film, he gets a grip on himself and realizes what he is doing.
Clearly, the film revolves around Lester's struggles with himself and his life, but there are several other characters that are not as central but also play significant roles in the film. Lester's neighbor is an ex-marine experiencing anger management problems and difficulty with his sexual orientation, and this man's son Ricky is a strangely observant kid who lives in a difficult household but maintains a clear view of the important things
in life. Lester's daughter can't stand her family and is struggling with an attraction to Ricky that she initially doesn't understand and doesn't particularly like, and her friend Angela is the blonde cheerleader type who wants nothing more than to be accepted and respected, and she seeks these things through her huge efforts to be sexually attractive.

This is a complicated character structure, and it is topped off by the striking character development that takes place in every single character in the movie by the end, and this is really one of the film's strongest points. In American Beauty, we don't see the life of a person as it is changed and affected by the world around him or her, we see the lives of a whole group of people as they interact with each other and change while following the rules set for them by the society that they grew up in. This makes the film much more effective and the message much clearer.
(spoilers) Clearly, this is something of a worst-case scenario, but nothing in the film is impossible. Everyone (at least those of us in America, I suppose) is capable of following the rules of society too closely and ending up miserable like Lester Burnham and his family and friends and neighbors, so watch out. Even Lester's terrible ending is not necessarily tragic. He knew when he quit his job and started working at a fast food restaurant, along with all of his other seemingly reckless behaviors, that he was endangering his future, but he was enjoying himself. He was feeling better than he had in years and years, and that mattered - as it should to all of us, to an extent - more than anything else. The only person left unhappy was the neighbor, who killed Lester because he still doesn't understand himself and is ashamed about something that he has discovered. Each character in the film represents a different lesson that can be learned by everyone. They're not all working together to deliver one big message, they're all giving something of their own, adding to the richness and superiority of the film as a whole. Make no mistake, all you poll voters, American Beauty WAS the Best Picture of 1999.