When Kevin Spacey is on fire, NOBODY can touch him!

Rating: 10/10 (31 July 2014)

This is the best film of 1999 and the best way to end the millennium. It is a film about quirky characters that drive the movie to greatness, with Kevin Spacey shining as the crown-jewel. He plays and ordinary man who is a major push-over, letting his boss and family (Benning, Birtch) walk all over him. When he becomes infatuated with his daughter's new friend (Suvari), he goes all out and decides to stand-up for himself in every way, no matter how honest or hurtful he becomes. Meanwhile, his daughter develops a fling with the interesting new neighbour (Bentley).
Both plots are driven by really deep characters that the audience will fall in love with. Benning, Birtch, Bentley, Suvari and Cooper all give performances of a lifetime. But none were quite as good as Kevin "the King" Spacey. In American Beauty, Spacey outdoes himself in all his previous films, even as the crippled Verbal Kint in "The Usual Suspects." He outdoes Denzel Washington and Jim Carrey who played real-life people to a T. Spacey's performance in this will rank near the top of ever poll of "best film performances ever."
4/4