Amazing!

Rating: 10/10 (25 August 2005)

American Beauty is a film of such richness, imagination and heart, that it lives in your memory long after the final mesmerizing scenes have faded from view. It is also an unbelievably unique experience. I know of no other film with the same intriguing, beguiling twists and turns--of scenes and surprises that sometimes take the breath away. There are moments in the film where the laughter is genuine, where the intense drama is almost unbearable, where dreamlike visions spark to life with such magic, we almost can't believe what we are seeing, and where tears flow freely with heartfelt understanding and identification with the characters. . And that brilliant color red--in scene after scene--we can almost smell those roses and recoil at the blood. The great film makers that filmed dream sequences--whether it is Fellini or Bergman or Hitchcock--are joined now by Sam Mendes. There are images and scenes and details in this movie destined for classical status: Angela in the bath of roses (what an image!), Ricky's beautiful heartbreaking film of the flying bag, the extraordinary use of music--whether the pop music from Lester's youth or the gorgeous, haunting Newman score which compliments the scenes so perfectly, Lester's scenes at work (who doesn't fantasize about speaking up the way he does?), the gorgeous, gorgeous meditation on the simple, beautiful images of his life passing before his eyes (bringing to mind Wilder's "Our Town" soliloquy that Emily gives detailing the simple, tender, but oh-so-meaningful moments in life, that make life worth living), the emotional roller-coaster, and off-kilter experience the viewer has as Angela and Lester's final scene goes from genuine eroticism, to tenderness, to wistfulness, to wise and profound understanding. On so many levels this film is one of the great cinematic experiences--as a work of art it can be studied and seen over and over again for myriad details, and as a work of the heart--it can be cherished.