Simply Incredible

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 2000)

What you are about to see is, perhaps, the best performance ever given by Kevin Spacey. This truly spectacular film by director Sam Mendes is a tender yet violent, happy yet angst-ridden journey into suburban America and into one perfectly-average family with no skeletons in their closet. Or are they? As the trailer would suggest, 'look closer'.
Reminiscent of The Ice Storm, it is about the dysfunction of the average family, but far more. American Beauty is a truly original work, with surprising humour and depth. It is a work of art; a cinematic masterpiece.
The plot revolves around the Burnham family; father Lester (Spacey), mother (Annette Bening), daughter (Thora Birch) and her best friend (Mena Suvari). Career-minded Bening seems to call the shots; henpecked, long suffering Spacey is about to lose his job, daughter Birch is dismayed with the pair of them and friend Suvari is superficial, believing that she is the most attractive girl of her age, but offers nothing more in depth.
So far, you might be thinking, this is like a great many pictures centering around a family with problems. Wrong. American Beauty is full of surprises - not in the dramatic twist sense of films like The Sixth Sense - no, this is far too subtle for that.
As the central couple's marriage begins to fall apart, in a non-aggressive form of boredom and attrition, the characters begin to regress to their unfulfilled youths, in an attempt to accomplish all the things they never did, tie up loose ends, and 'find themselves' again.
It's nearly impossible to explain this film in text. It needs to be seen. From whichever way you look at it, be it cast, acting, script or photography, this film is awesome. Do I need to say any more? Get your tickets.