Perhaps the greatest American film of the last 10 years...

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2004)

There are those who go through life pretending to be satisfied in every way when nearly all of us are anything but. This tremendous piece of cinematic work drives home the truth: all of us desperately wish for our youth and all its irresponsibility and vibrancy to return to us, but the fact is its gone forever, and our lives will never be as satisfying as it was back then.
American Beauty is the symbolic dream of all adults everywhere in the world to somehow recapture any and all aspects of their youth. In fact, many are desperate for exactly that. So much so that while we deny it to ourselves, we fantasize every day and night about the reality that we all would in fact do ANYTHING to return to our youth and stay there forever. Only after we age and become jaded to the world do we lose the pure joy that comes with being alive as we realize that existence revolves around trade-offs and compromise.
The character of Lester Burnham is classically created as we all see ourselves: initially weak, and only strong when independent, and it is that independence which ultimately destroys him. Perhaps moreso than any character in film in the last 10 years, Lester encapsulates the brutal truth that if one chooses to rebel against the conformity of the American Dream, one risks an enormous amount, even their own death. American Beauty is a fantastic voyage of the mind and soul through the eyes of quiet desperation, as one by one we all acquiesce to the reality that life ultimately grinds us all under its plow.