American Beauty

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 2016)

Being a big fan of David Lynch, I quite enjoy a movie that is a little "off". Having a political science degree, I definitely enjoy a movie that deals with deep issues like society and expectations. Sam Mendes' 1999 Best Picture winner embodies all of the above aspects that I like. About 20 minutes into this film, I was certain I was going to enjoy it. I wasn't wrong.
American Beauty highlights one suburban family's struggle with cultivating the normality that is expected of theirs, and every other family in America. The perfect house and lawn, the successful parents with good jobs, the well-adjusted high school teenager. There is just one problem with this picture--it doesn't exist. Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening) is a real estate agent vying for top spot in her market against a good looking competitor sweeping the field. Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) makes a decent living in a job he hates increasingly more with each passing day. Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) is the disillusioned youngest daughter in the house, struggling to fit in at school and eager to start her life. When a run-in with one of Jane's friends sets Lester headlong into a mid- life crisis, each weave of the Burnham family's seemingly perfect life comes unstitched.
The overarching theme of this movie deals with the question, what is normal? The fact is, that answer is different for each individual. We see three different variations of normal just in the Burnham's neighborhood, let alone outside their block. Expecting life to come together into the cookie-cutter image you've expected since you were cognizant of your place in the world just isn't reality. Unfortunately, many people don't understand that false reality and attempt, for far too many years of their life, to create what they've always expected. True liberation comes with learning to be yourself. For that reason alone, you should make time for American Beauty. Oh yeah, and Kevin Spacey.