A movie that gives us new hope? *SPOILER*-Warning

Rating: Null/10 (30 May 2004)

The movie 'American Beauty' really touched me in a deep way because of the truth it tells. The movie deals with many different issues in society and family life and confronts the spectator with problems most people usually do not want to take a closer look at. For example, how 'perfect' families are actually only nice, loving and successful on the outside but sad, cold and unhappy on the inside.
In the movie Kevin Spacey does a terrific job playing the part of Lester Burnham, a middle-aged husband, father of a daughter, living his depressingly boring life in the suburb, stuck in a job he hates and in a marriage with a woman who hates him. A sad situation, and what makes it even sadder is how true it is for so many families and that for most of them, it will probably never change.
Lester makes the decision to change his life when his daughter's girlfriend, Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), comes in his life, whose simple appearance is enough to make him see how unhappy he is in his situation.
By exercising, quitting his job, starting to take care of his daughter and telling his truth towards his wife, he not only changes his life but also the lives of the whole family. His wife Carolyn Burnham (Annette Bening), is a worn out real estate agent trying to keep up with the real estate ' king' Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) and believes that in order to be successful you always have to look successful on the outside. Their relationship has cooled off and they seem to be emotionally completely disconnected. When her husband started changing everything and her little perfect world was in danger of collapsing she pretended to be the victim and started an affair with Buddy.
His daughter Jane (Thora Birch) does not have a good relationship with either of her parents. She totally disagrees with her mother about values in life, which for her mom are looking nice and happy on the outside and having expensive furniture and for her are love and true beauty. Obviously Jane hates her father for having a crush on her friend which she thinks is totally embarrassing but I think the thing she hates most about him is being so passive and letting her down in some way, I think she knows how her father feels about his life and she is disappointed by him giving in without any resistance.
Jane however is an interesting character. She is not like a normal teenager. She does not want to belong to any special clique or to feel restricted by what is cool in the eyes of other people. She is a cheerleader but still she does not serve the stereotype. She falls in love with Ricky Fits, her neighbor's son who in the eyes of her best friend Angela is a total weirdo.
Ricky's parents also have a very unhealthy marriage and not a good (if any) relationship with their son. His father's greatest fear is that Ricky will become gay and he believes that he can only keep that from happening by being as tough on Ricky as possible and by never showing any feelings or weakness (which is the same in his eyes!). Later in the movie we get to know that Ricky's father is only so afraid of Ricky being gay because he's gay himself. Ricky's mother is not there at all. She seems to be mentally ill or just simply traumatized by her husband beating her for many years.
Ricky however, is like Jane: different. Most people think he's mentally ill or just very weird but truly he has amazing depth and wisdom.
I think it's great how Jane and Ricky find each other and how deeply they understand each other's situation, feelings and thoughts.
I think this movie is great because of the depth and the truth and it's also just simply well made! It really has a nice effect on the story, telling it from beyond death and also the nice twist at the end when everybody thinks Carolyn killed her husband but really it was Ricky's father, too embarrassed ( having outed himself as being gay and then having been rejected ) to bare it.
On me this movie had a very depressing effect, probably, because it's so sad that all of the things that are shown, are so true in reality. But for me it also has a very nice, pleasing message, for it shows us a possibility for the future to break out of the painful reality we live in.
It shows how the children of suffering, the children of disconnected, love lacking relationships finally connect and find true love.
And how they take off for a new way of living, a new reality.