I agree - look closer

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2000)

This is one hell of a clever movie. The script crackles along with a savagely funny dissection of modern life. The cast is excellent (Kevin Spacey has never been better!) and some fine directing, editing and cinematography make for a darkly satisfying experience. Yet beneath all this, there is a deeper, more compassionate message.
Even the apparently oxymoronic title is clever, since it describes the journey which the movie takes. From `American' to Beauty, from superficiality to depth, from lust to compassion, and from a lliving death to a true appreciation of life in the moment of death.
A central image of the movie is a video, taken by the boy next door, of a plastic bag dancing in the wind. To him this was the most beautiful thing he had ever filmed. To me this summed up what this movie was all about. The bag was a metaphor for the characters presented to us: empty; products of a consumerist society; plastic people'. Yet something - the wind - was animating this bag, making it dance and swirl, making it beautiful. Just as the breath of life was animating these characters and making them beautiful, even if they didn't know it. This is the ultimate truth which is stated so clearly by Lester at the end of the movie.
The tagline they're using on the advertising material for the movie is `Look closer'. And that's just what it invites you to do.