The best movie I have ever seen

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2007)

"American Beauty" is simply the best movie ever made. The photography is wonderful, the acting is great, the music is haunting and unique, and, most of all, the script by Alan Ball is fantastic. You would probably expect that after about 100 years of movie making, every topic has been dealt with a hundred times already. How surprising then, that in 1999 it was still possible to make a film about something that has rarely, if ever, been a movie theme, and still touches most viewers very personally: Sensitivity.
You need to be sensitive in order to fully appreciate this movie. Only then you will be able to identify with Lester's development, and see why Caroline's is a fake one. You will also understand what touches Ricky so much in the key scene (the one with the plastic bag), and Lester's final words at the end of the film.
American Beauty works on many levels. As a comedy, as a criticism of society, and as a lesson in how to rediscover your vitality. You will laugh, you will feel tension and rage, but in the end, you'll recognize that it was all about something completely different. Not about the characters' "stupid little lives".
The movie is constantly surprising the viewer, by shattering preconceived expectations. Most importantly, the "psycho" next door, who was in a mental institution, who deals drugs (both among the worst American nightmares), turns out to be the savior in the end. He is the one who knows about true beauty. "American Beauty" is not about what most people in the world would first associate with the title - a superficial, arrogant cheerleader-type girlie like Angela Hayes. Rather, it's about the beauty that is in the simplest of things, and in yourself. Angela's beauty lies not in her aspirations of becoming a model, and her having "been in Seventeen once". It lies in her being insecure, an inexperienced virgin, who, in the end, admits how fearful she is. The most stunning thing, and I am sure that the makers were completely aware of this twist, is that this is a Hollywood movie.