My extended review of the film

Rating: Null/10 (26 April 2005)

'American Beauty' is a film about people and how they live. At times it is a biting satire with sharp wit and acute observations, at other times it is a deep drama about unhappy individuals in American suburbia, but all the time I found it an enjoyable film to view, both because of the things it has to say and the high cinematic quality of the production.
The best part of the film would probably be Alan Ball's original screenplay. It is alternates from amusing and touching, perceptive and funny, and the characters are all very well developed and feel real. A common complaint I hear about the film is that the characters are thin, but they are just the opposite. We acquire an understanding of what makes each character tick and what each characters wants out of life. Some are motivated by the idea of success and luxuries, while other are prepared to settle for a simpler lifestyle. Some of the characters also have their own individual secrets that are revealed towards the end, and by watching the film again one can pick up their insecurities about their secrets.
Another complaint I often hear is that the film is too literal and straightforward. This however is quite a subjective judgment, as where does one draw the line between a film being too complex and not complex enough? If a film is overly complex and too hard to extract meaning out of, sure some people would look deeper, but others will be put off. I feel that 'American Beauty' has quite a good balance between how much it blatantly states and how much you can extract by closer examination, and what is said out loud is not unnatural. It is in that way a film that can be enjoyed by almost all people: casual moviegoers and avid film buffs alike.
There is not really much else that people tend to complain about, and really there is hardly anything at all to not like. The types of flaws that one might find in the film are what you expect to find if judging whether one of two films in an all time top 100 list is the better of the two. They are not the type of flaws that should affect one's viewing experience, unless of course one expected to find something more in the film than it offered. But that again is subjective.
The technical aspects of the film are wonderful. Thomas Newman's score is very low-key and simple when needed, and more zapped when required. Conrad L. Hall has meticulously set up every single shot. His use of out-of-focus backgrounds and foregrounds, high and low camera angels, and swooping shot is perfect. The film all flows very well, and some jump cut editing is perfectly woven in. The set décor and art direction paint a colourful picture of suburbia but yet they also manage to bring out the monotony of all the individual places. Plus the use of the colour red in the film basically speaks for itself.
To compliment the film's other virtues, the cast give it their best with good results. Each actor and actress perfectly suits their characters, and it a shame about the lack of acclaim given to many of the performances. Spacey and Bening do some brilliant stuff as a discontent couple who are learning individually to enjoy life but yet are still full of anger, and Birch is perfect as their insecure teenage daughter. But the often unmentioned great performances come from Chris Cooper as the army type new neighbour, Wes Bentley as his teenage son, and Alison Janney as his wife, who seems just a little too detached from life. Then of course there is Mena Suvari as Birch's school friend who values her looks above everything.
This is a film that touches on many different human concerns. Beauty, as in the title, is a key theme, and ideas about different perceptions of beauty run throughout the film. Bentley films a number of sequences on his camcorder, and we are shown the digital pictures. There are also the windows that everyone uses to spy on one another. People see things in many different ways because we are all different, yet we are all striving for a common goal of contentment, and the film tries to show this. 'American Beauty' starts off as a mystery thriller because we know that Spacey has died and that Birch has asked someone to kill him, but the mystery is the end is how we all function and how we are able to find happiness in life.