A bird that flaps its wings but never quite takes off.

Rating: 5/10 (8 January 2012)

Roses play a special part in the film. In the very second minute, the wife of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), Carolyn Burnham, is shown pruning those blood-red beauties. Seven minutes in, they make an appearance on the dinner table, followed by another at Carolyn's work table. Their significance could have been of some value, just when things get a little creepy, because rose-petals start appearing from inside a teenager's top as she opens it. They fall like fresh snow on Lester as he lies in bed. However, they do not feature merely in the imagination of a forty two year-old cougar. They have also been, and this by far is the most creative use of rose petals I have ever seen, used for tactfully covering exposed parts of a female's body as she lies in a pool full of, guess what, roses. And just in case the movie didn't make it obvious enough so far, it is titled American Beauty.
The film begins with a video recording of a teenage girl describing how her father is a 'horny, geek boy' who has the nasty habit of spraying his shorts whenever she brings a girlfriend a home. The man's daughter wants to 'put him out of his misery.' A male voice in the background asks if she would like him to kill her father. She stares at the camera, looking very much like the Ring-girl, and says 'Yeah. Would you?' because that is just how normal people behave.
The aforementioned man is the also-aforementioned Lester Burnham. He narrates the story in first person, which comes across as odd, since in the very sixth sentence he says that he will be dead in less than a year. Somehow, digested. He leads a rather unhappy life working at Media Monthly Magazine, constantly being overwhelmed by his wife. He lives in a world of hate - he hates his job, he hates his neighbours, he hates his boss, his wife hates him, his daughter hates him - not a very pleasant situation to be in. He is, by all standards, a gigantic loser going through a mid-life crisis; the time in his life when his wife doesn't even want to have sex with him. But, that isn't the worst of it. It isn't long before he develops an infatuation for one of his daughter's friends, Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), whose mere sight serves as an aphrodisiac for the craving Lester. He dreams of her, gives her blank calls, eavesdrops on her conversations and goes to great lengths all in an attempt to get laid.
Instead of trying to keep things simple, American Beauty takes the wrong inspiration from Robert Frost and travels The-Road-Not-and-Should-Not- Have-Been-Taken, which leads to superficially and unnecessarily complicating things. Unfortunately, this serves as the ultimate digression for the movie. Heaping onto the basic storyline, the film introduces a scrupulous ex-military man as Lester's new neighbour, his laconic, lackadaisical son who has a penchant for spying on neighbours and shooting videos of perfectly normal things like a plastic-bag flying in the wind, Carolyn's competitor who she decides to sleep with while cheating on her husband, drugs, adultery, uncanny hallucinations, parental problems, among a plethora of other elements - till it turns the movie into a farrago of unrecognizable things, eventually making it masquerade as a cross between a wannabe-comedy and pretentious philosophy.
The message that the movie is trying to convey, through this almighty mess, is very similar to what Dead Poets Society (1989 - ten years before) and Fight Club (1999 - the same year) have tried to preach - stand up to the status quo, don't let your belongings own you, live life the way you want to - same old, same old. The anarchistic streak that Lester develops is inspirational and funny, but not really a way of life that should be adopted by people, and the end very well justifies why not.
The film had the potential to be great comedy. The situation and atmosphere were ideal. So were the characters - a pushover of a husband, a termagant wife, a daughter who hates them both, a hot-friend with the man falling for the latter. Though not highly original, that script, had a high laughter-capability. Unfortunately, in an effort shove more down the throat than it could handle, it wasted it all. There are a few moments of glory though - Lester learning to stand on his feet, jerking off in bed, lifting weights with nothing but socks on - scattered laughter here and there, but nothing that could have been.
The movie maintains a dark atmosphere that culminates in a dark ending, both really impressive features. The film holds onto its funereal air and this moribidity becomes palpable in the end. Though the finale comes through an unbelievably, incomprehensively stupid misunderstanding, it holds good on its own, while even managing to touch an emotional chord. The last ten minutes or so play a heroic act for a film that has its moments but never manages grows to its capabilities.