overrated

Rating: 5/10 (25 March 2000)

After months of resisting the hype for this movie, I figured, hey, I like Sam Mendes's work - maybe American Beauty will turn out to be better than it looks in the previews. Unfortunately I was wrong. American Beauty really is just the same old recycled view of suburban family life wrapped in a slightly more intense package to grab the audience. I don't see anything about Lester and Carolyn Burnam that is different from the various frustrated husband and wife roles that have come before. The film's only saving grace is Wes Bentley and the concept of the intensity of life's beauty. But that concept only surfaces a couple of times in the movie and is only *talked about* by the characters. It is never supported by any events or by any of the characters. It's as if American Beauty was just a very mediocre story about an unhappy family, and somehow the writer managed to throw in a very 'deep' quote. Perhaps that plastic bag floating in the wind deserves the Best Actor nod - it was the only figure that really inspired.