A masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2002)

Kevin Spacey is one of the great character actors of American cinema, and here Kevin Spacey /is/ Lester Burnham, a dispirited living-by-numbers 40something middle class white American, with a dying marriage and a daughter who has long since ceased to regard him with respect or even affection, living in a nice, normal, boring middle class suburb. Lester is inspired to rethink his life, and he begins to make sweeping changes. Superb as Spacey's performance is, his co-star Annette Bening threatens to steal every scene she is in as Lester's wife Carolyn, driven by her belief in appearances, career and material things, but above all a desire to be in control of her life and her family, who starts to make a few changes of her own. The other actors are uniformly flawless, lead by a strong performance from Wes Bentley as the unconventional, strong-willed boy next door who is, surprisingly, the most "normal" of the characters in many ways. The direction and cinematography are perfect, every shot carries meaning, but the recurring theme, reinforced by the design of the sets, is of life that looks normal at first glance, but is often lived constrained by the social norms it observes. Alan Ball's script is brilliant, darkly funny but never flippant, intelligent but never self-congratulatory and moving but never contrived. An unequivocal 10 out of 10, and deserving winner of five Academy Awards.