Skillfully made film hampered by sophomoric writing...

Rating: 3/10 (9 March 2000)

"American Beauty" is better in its execution than in its conception. Ostensibly showing us the seamy underside of suburban life, and despite excellent performances from all its leads, the film instead presents a slightly sophomoric take along the lines of "What's Wrong with My Parents". Clearly, here's a movie imagined as subversive while actually being quite conventional. This, in simple terms, is why it's the Oscar favorite for best film.
The film is not afraid to traffic heavily in tired Hollywood stereotypes: mid-life crisis; the seething frustrations of a middle-aged married couple who have grown apart; the overfriendly gay professional neighbors who present welcome baskets to new neighbors but bicker with each other, all the while staying in great shape through rigorous workouts; the hard-nosed, intolerant military officer.
But a lot can be forgiven when the filmmaker's still in his twenties. The film, obsessed with showing us overlooked beauty in life's simplest things, actually succeeds here and there, and has a lively pace that slows appropriately when needed. It's also obsessed with sex (and 'adult' enough about it that I was sorry to see so many kids in the cinema). Still the director, and not the writer, deserves the credit for what's good about "American Beauty". Despite ample foreshadowing, the Hollywood (not to say "upbeat") ending is quite contrived.