Spacey recognised at last

Rating: 7/10 (5 October 2001)

I remember staying up all night, drinking copius amounts of Diet Coke and chomping on butter popcorn. Oh them were the days. Why? The Oscars, of course. For many years the event was the bread and butter of my video shop employee tenure. Don't know why. It's not like it was a shock or anything when the winners were finally announced. Anyone who had kept their ear to the ground generally heard who was going to emerge victorious. My favourite moments were when Nic Cage won for "Leaving Las Vegas" or when Kevin Spacey finally got well deserved recognition for "The Usual Suspects", having been a fan of his for about 5 years.
So what's this all about? It's all about the world finally realising just what a genius, and world class actor Kevin Spacey is. I marvelled at his performances in "Glengary Glen Ross" and "Swimming with Sharks" and cringed in complete shock as he for some reason chose to star in the dismal "A Time to Kill". Must have been for a bet.
Anyway, I'm rambling.
"American Beauty" is the story of the final months in the life of Lester Burnham (Spacey) and his search for some form of happiness in his life. He's a middle-class, average America who has worked hard in his job for 14 years. The result of this hard work is a 42 year old man with a daughter who hates him (Thora Birch - "Monkey Business"), a wife who nags him (Annette Bening - "Bugsy"), and a life that bores him. We are introduced to this scenario by the now-deceased Burnham, which places an interesting spin on things seeing that we view the movie in the knowledge that the lead character will be dead by the end.
In the opening scenes we see that all is not well in the Burnham household. The troubled couple do their best to portray 'business as usual' by attending their cheerleading daughter's big night at a local basketball game. When he should be admiring his daughter's cheerleading skills, Lester instead gets entranced by her fellow-dancer and best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari) which leads the tormented father into a bizarre sexual fantasy the type of which he's never experienced before.
When he meets new neighbour, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) at a function soon after, Lester gets introduced to the wonders of smoking pot. He is further impressed by how the bar employee quits his job in such a matter-of-fact manner when caught hanging outside the building by his boss. Suddenly Lester begins to see that life is there for living. Knowing that Carolyn may not support his new outlook on life, he decides to take things by the scruff of the neck. Can the reckless abandon which Lester has planned really deliver happiness?
And thus is the premise of "American Beauty" - the 1999 Oscar winner for Best Picture.
There's no doubt that it is a controversial movie. Themes of homosexuality, masturbation, drug use, underage sex and adultery are prevalent throughout the movie. But for some reason, it never becomes a vulgar experience, or a film that should offend. It is a black comedy, maybe even a tragicomedy.
The performances from pretty much the entire cast range from excellent to outstanding. Spacey of course was rewarded with the Best Actor oscar, and there was a nomination also for Annette Bening (Best Actress). Thora Birch is wonderful as the angry teenage daughter and her strange relationship with the equally impressive Wes Bentley is one of the movie's great achievements.
It works so well because English director Sam Mendes does such an outstanding job in his directorial debut for which he was rewarded with the Best Director Oscar this year. Equally as important is Alan Ball's wonderful (Oscar winning) screenplay. There are many moments where you can't wait to hear what Spacey is going to say next and when he does deliver, it's normally a biting comment that has you laughing your ass off.
Wonderful stuff and a justified winner of it's many Oscars in my book.
Rating ****