One of the best films of the last decade

Rating: 10/10 (26 April 2007)

'Look closer' the tag line for American Beauty, director Sam Medez's tale of mid life crises in suburban America. Look closer and you will find an absolute Gem of a movie scripted by Alan Ball with a cast at the peak of their powers.
Ball takes a simple premise of an all too familiar coming of age tale and turns it on its head, fusing the many different characters in the film into a plot that sparkles with intelligence and humour.
Starting off with a voice over from our protagonist, played by the outstanding Kevin Spacey, he announces "my name is Lester Burnham, a year from now I will be dead". With this cryptic message we are now left to explore the final year of the doomed narrator's life and his problems with his wife (Anette Benning) and daughter (Thora Birch). The turning point in his life is when his daughter introduces her schoolgirl friend, played by the beautiful Mena Suvari, to her father and he falls head over heals for her, changing his life forever.
Wes Bentley plays a troubled teenage drug dealer that sparks a relationship with Lester's daughter while supplying drugs to her father on the side. Chris Cooper gives a stellar performance as Ricky's violent domineering father who has a secret of his own that explodes into the movie with disastrous consequences.
American Beauty is a must see movie, a triumph of exceptional acting and intricately woven narrative. Unquestionably one of the best films of 1999.