Seems like a good film, until you do as it's tagline suggests.

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 1999)

THIS ONE IS A DEFINITE SPOILER, SO BE WARNED!!! If you "look closer" at this movie, you may find the horrible truth. It is easily the most over-rated film of the year. It disturbs me that so many people call this movie great. We start off fine and dandy. Tensions at the dinner table, a sexually frustrated married couple, a horribly pessimistic and self-loathing Lester... This is the best thing the movie has going. When Lester catches his first glimpse of Angela, his daughter's teenage cheerleader friend, we have one of the most beautifully done movie scenes in recent history. The momentum continues only for a short time after this. Lester eavesdrops on his daughter and her friend and overhears some tips on how to be more attractive to his young goddess. Kevin Spacey is briefly brilliant as the 42-year old obcessed with impressing this teenager by lifting weights. He takes a new outlook on life, and becomes rebellious. The tremendous discomfort at the dinner table scuffles is the last good piece of movie left in "American Beauty." As Lester says during his morningly masturbation ritual in the shower, "It's all down hill from here." We are less than half-way through the movie, and the focus turns to Lester's daughter, played by Thora Birch. She does not have the skill to carry any drama, let alone a struggling, lopsided one like this. A weird, poorly acted role of a drug-dealing, teenage peeping Tom character wrestles his way in and ruins everything. He and his father are such pitifully formulaic characters that it makes me sick. Are we supposed to believe that an 18-year old would actually go around recording plastic bags floating in the wind or a dead man on the side of the road because he's obcessed with beauty? So much so that it makes him feel pain? The end was a pitiful attempt at surprise. . . In my opinion, it would be much better. . The production design of this movie is great. It actually is beautiful. It is wildly funny and clever at the beginning, but strains and spins out to a dismal end. It's a half-baked script. I like the performances of Kevin Spacey, and this is one of his better ones, but I still think he has a long way to go. Because of poor writing, he turns from being the perfect Lester into an actor miscast in a strange role. Annette Benning gives the best performance out of the bunch, and deserves Oscar consideration. All of the young actors were terrible, but I can't blame them. Leaving this move will give you a weird feeling. It is definitely entertaining at times, but is for the most part half-baked. The most tell-tale sign of a poor script is the obvious plug for the legalization of marijuana. Frankly, I think the first half of this script was written sober, and finished while high. I'm glad to see a movie like this get such popularity (as opposed to a movie like "Armageddon"), but this just isn't the right movie. If you want a good one, go see "Bringing Out the Dead." I'd give it a 7 out of 10, but for reasons that most people can't appreciate. I share the view of themes it expresses, such as 1) A fully-grown man can be happy with a fast food job, even when his wife is making a lot more money than him, and 2) Material possessions mean nothing (as it is presented through the couch scene). I give Sam Mendes credit for the effort, but the fact is, if you look closer, you'll not see the underbelly of suburbia. You'll see the underbelly of a borderline flop.