Perhaps the best film ever made.

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2005)

The movie, American Beauty, investigates the American cultures need to fulfill external measures of success, happiness, and beauty. It focuses on Lester Burnham, a loser who is in a mid-life crisis. An infatuation with his teenage daughter's friend, Angela, ignites a stream of rebellious acts meant to liberate him from the yoke of his marriage and job. Similar revelations are happening to the supporting cast as each struggle to meet some external vision of happiness or perfection. Wife, Carol, seeks to be the best real estate agent, best gardener, best everything. Daughter, Jane, seeks a breast augmentation and Angela, masks her own insecurities in a blanket of sexual bravado. Lester's mid-life crisis, in combination with the new neighbors next door, rattles the status quo, questioning the meaning of happiness  true acceptance.
The movie's strength is in the director's artistry to repeat the thematic meaning in every aspect of the film  setting, wardrobe, dialogue, background music, and camera angles to name a few. Every frame is artfully arranged to articulate the core meaning of the film.
In the opening scene Lester introduces, "This is my neighborhood ... This is my life," and the first of three overhead pans bring us into this model suburbia. The plot is a combination of familiar and absurd that combined relate and challenge us. The shocking opening scene of Lester masturbating, while offensive, assures us that there will be no secrets between Lester and the audience.
Our introduction to Carol makes her obsessive, up-tight personality evident in dialogue, setting and wardrobe. Carol's roses, and numerous other versions will be a metaphor for beauty (rigid perfection of the bloom), or lust (petals) and/or power in the vibrant reds. The relationship between the family members is mirrored in the morning ritual of driving to work. Carol (posture erect) drives and Jane sits front/passenger, while Lester curls up, fetal position, in the back. The body language, and character placement describes the position, status, and emotional relationship of the family members.
In various scenes that follow, mood is reflected in the setting. The redundant, gray/blue hum of Lester's office, and Angela's bedroom wall papered with fashion images, all reveal volumes about the characters. Carol chants, "I will sell a house today" and then is alone with her breakdown. Every character is isolated, detached, and hopelessly unhappy.
Lester's fantasy sequences offer the greatest contrast in setting. Every sequence is accompanied by slews of rose petals, otherworld music, and mists.
The director uses the lens of different cameras to force the audience into seeing relationships and personalities "anew". The most obvious of lenses is that of Rickie's camcorder. It is a voyeur into the lives of the Burnham family, especially that of Jane, the object of his affection. How are these viewpoints different than the camera of the director? Setting reveals the characters. The stark bedroom, lined with video tapes reek of isolation, and secrecy. His parent's home is meticulously clean, devoid of sentimentality. They are as empty and isolated as the rest. The musical choices float in the background or explode in the foreground are equally revealing of the character's attitudes like the melodic "Bali Hai" or the rocking "American Woman".
The dialogue is equally revealing -- meant to be interpreted in contradiction of their delivery or to foreshadow events. Angela's line, "Everything that's meant to happen, does, eventually," is both the babbling teenager and a prophecy. Angela is unaware of how revealing her statement, "I'm so sick of people taking their insecurities out on me," is in relation to her own insecurities.
Stage two begins with the opening street pan and he narrates. "It's a great thing when you can surprise yourself. It makes you wonder what else you can do". It sets the tone for part two  there will be great surprises by Lester, and all the characters. Carol's surprise is part adultery and part ammunition. It is revealing that after her rendezvous with the Real Estate King ("Yes your majesty") that we see Carol in the first soft look of the film  a pale rose patterned sweater at dinner. In each subsequent scene she wears power red. The gray is gone. Jane surprises everyone when she walks home with Ricky, and later undresses for him in the window. Lester. Of course, is still in pursuit of Angela and thinks a good workout might substantiate his fantasy. He is direct when asked his motivation for working out and he says, "I want to look good naked." The honesty with which he states his intent implies a new self-honesty, but later events will reveal how deceived Lester really was.
Perhaps the most powerful dialogue is the line "In order to be successful, it's important to project an image of success." The line, in part, defines the question of the movie. What is success? What is beauty? Who defines it? Does success or beauty constitute happiness? If you're only projecting it, than by definition, you aren't really successful, are you? Ricky's bag video is both cryptic and metaphorical. Understanding the meaning behind the video gives us the best glimpse of real happiness, real self-acceptance. What is it that is hiding? Does Ricky discover that the masks, and anxieties, and the projections, we hide behind interfere with beauty? Is beauty physical or material? I think Ricky knows the truth and it's reflected in the translucent bag; the ordinary. When the movie's over do we know the truth? More importantly, do we believe it, or do we quickly slip back behind? The final stage of the story is again introduced by the overhead pan of Lester's street. All the anxieties will come to a crescendo in these final scenes. How it all comes down (the rain) is clever and surprising due to a well sequenced plot, but what it all means is still left to metaphorical sequences, and the discerning eye of Ricky, our resident director. He gets to look behind.