People are not always what they seem

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2006)

American Beauty is a remarkable film because it puts a sympathetic face on all of the different ways that people cover up the pain in their lives. The tag line, "... look closer," is particularly apt in this regard. The film makes us look closer in a way that makes us think we will enjoy some simple salacious comeuppance, but we realize that things are not as simple as we believe.
Although Lester Burnham's midlife crisis forms the thread that binds the film together, each of the other characters' stories is equally important to look at more closely. Each of the characters has some kind of secret or problem that many people will recognize in their own lives, and that many people will think about long after the final credits roll off the screen.