It is a surprisingly good movie about our social masks, loneliness and inability to see the beauty in the world

Rating: 8/10 (21 March 2000)

Usually the more a movie gets Oscar nomination or prizes the more I don't want to see it. Generally it was one of my rules in the pre-evaluation of movies and it is based upon many bad experiences. In the case of "American Beauty" this rule was not applicable at all. I got encouraged to watch the movie after I heard so many contradictory opinions about it Usually when a lot of debates are aroused about something it is worth seeing. It is in fact a movie among a serious of excellent low budget socially critical American movies that are made in the last three years like "Happiness (1998)" and "Sue (1997)". At the beginning it has the amazing ability if making you laugh on things that are principally very sad. The main characters are 'usual' people but after taking a deep look along the movie you find out that they are not usual at all! Everybody is behaving normally in way the society wants it but they are deeply ruining their lives. It is a critic about their loneliness and inability to communicate with each other. It is also about the image that one should have in the surrounding society ignoring ones real feelings and running after the material world leaving his 'human' self behind. A middle aged man is fed up with his stupid work and the his boring life and falls in love in the friend of his teenager daughter. His wife is running after her own career forgetting the many things that make people happy in their lives without thinking about money. His daughter is feeling neglected by her parents. Her best girl friend personifies the 'American beauty' with her long blond hair and excessive make up and keeps on telling about her big sexual adventures and how a great model she will be. She is surely also of course totally dumb! A neighbor, who is an ex-officer in the Marines, runs his home with military order. His son makes his money illegally in order to afford buying expensive video equipment in order to document everything around him. The impact of this film comes from the similarity between this people and all of us. Are we also so unhappy? Unlike the end of "Happiness (1998)" and although it is principally sad, it's very optimist! The photography is simple but effective. Using the video camera in some scenes helps contemplating these scenes with other eyes. I am still astonished of the great success of this movie. Usually such critical movies don't encounter the enthusiasm of the spectators especially the North Americans. Is it a new tendency in Hollywood to make movies with a deep meaning? Or at least with some meaning?!