Some brilliant parts, but the whole is underwhelming

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2011)

Interesting, but staggeringly overrated comedy-drama focusing on the rot and discontent underneath the pristine front of suburbia. The film opens with narration from Kevin Spacey advising us that he is dead and detailing the events that led to his demise. Spacey is a typical example of the depressed suburban husband and father. His marriage to shrewish Realtor wife Annette Bening is miserable and he is barely on speaking terms with truculent daughter Thora Birch, who is developing a flirtation with the shy young videographer/drug dealer next door (Wes Bentley). Spacey cracks when he is forced out of his company and goes through a complete life change - including striking up a friendship with Bentley and a flirtation with his daughter's jailbait high school friend Mena Suvari. This is something of an odd film tone-wise. I can find few people that will say they out-and-out love it, but instead they will concentrate on certain elements and praise those factors to the exclusion of others. The acting is really a selling point for this film. Spacey simply has never been better and will probably always be identified with this role. The young cast members are all quite compelling. Suvari's arrogant pretensions give way to a rather touching vulnerability late in the film, while Birch reveals an appealing side with Bentley that is missing from her interactions with her parents. Bentley has also never been better as the intense guy next door, who sells drugs and copes with abusive homophobic dad Chris Cooper, but manages to find beauty through his video camera in the most unlikely places. The remainder of the adults fare less well. Allison Janney has a thankless role as Bentley's catatonic mother, while Cooper is largely a one-note caricature. Much ink has been spilled about Bening and while one can give kudos that she is unafraid to tackle head on a thoroughly unappealing character, it is undeniable that she is really playing a nasty harpy on one strident note. Spacey keeps reminding us that she "was not always like this", but our only indication is a flashback to her laughing on a carnival ride, which is hardly conclusive of any range to her character. Some of her scenes - beating herself up after failing to make a sale and the laughable sex scenes with Peter Gallagher - are downright amateurish. There are a number of sequences in this film that are truly arresting and memorable, but for every one that astonishes there are an equal amount that go no where or just completely fizzle. Indeed the film seems to carry an attitude that it is much more insightful than it truly is. The entire scenario of dysfunction underneath the surface of suburbia and its denizens revealing themselves to be polar opposites of what their surface may hint is an old plot device used often well before American Beauty discovered it, so what this film presents is hardly novel or groundbreaking. The end result is a polished film featuring some strong performances and a handful of amazing moments, counteracted by a number of forgettable plot contrivances, a surprising shallowness and an uneven tone that often keeps the viewer at an emotional arm's length.