Great performances make stereotypes relatable

Rating: 8/10 (2 April 2015)

American Beauty (DreamWorks, 2000, USA), Sam Mendes's directorial debut. It's a dark comedy centered around Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a middle-aged turd who lost the zest for life, but sets out to get his mojo back in his last year alive.
Dissatisfied with his real estate broker wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and emo teen daughter Jane (Thora Birch), Lester's lost until he eavesdrops and hears Jane's BFF Angela (Mena Suvari) claim she'd totally do him if he just got buff.
Carolyn is also lost. She's a snooty workaholic, captive to material things and her ideal of success. Her desperation for this success is probably the main thing keeping it at bay. She can hardly contain her frustration when people don't buy the house she's selling.
Jane is a cheerleader who falls in love with a voyeuristic loner Ricky Fits (Wes Bentley). Ricky just moved in next door with his abusive, dementedly homophobic, "order and discipline" Marine Colonel dad (Chris Cooper), and his mom (Allison Janney), a meek, horribly unloved, perhaps dim-witted woman.
The married characters are set up so far apart from each other, it's hard to believe they ever got along. At one point, Lester even asks Carolyn "what changed?" Most of the time nobody listens, in the last dinner table scene Lester breaks the asparagus against the wall and deadpans "honey, please don't interrupt me." Lester and Carolyn are both jerks, and still I was tricked into liking them anyway, Spacey and Bening have that kind of skill.
Carolyn and Lester's relationship is where the commentary about materialism takes place. Carolyn Burnham actually gets the short end of the stick here. She's really trying to uphold her standards. Her problem with Lester is his apathy, he's stopped believing in any rules and standards. Lester talks a lot about being owned by stuff, but Carolyn's views aren't expressed very well. She comes across as a prude scold until her affair with real estate rival Buddy "the King" Kane (Peter Gallagher), just about the only good thing that happens to her in the whole movie. Only then do we get to see that she can have fun too ("yes, your majesty!").
Some reviewers have stated that Lester's "this is just stuff" speech is invalidated because he trades in his sedan for a red sports car. I'm not sure. I doubt he'd allow the thought of messing up the upholstery stop him from getting it on in the car. But he clings to the beer and decides to argue. His point is right, don't let possessions stop you from living a little. Regardless, Lester should just shut up and move his wife somewhere she wants to do it. Instead he yells at her, now they're both unsatisfied.
Lester is an emotional roller coaster, starting out desperate, loathsome and contemptuous. He meets Angela and gets pathetically horny and sycophantic. He's angry at the world, vengeful and vindictive. Lester gets smug and rebellious, reverting to adolescence. He's completely self-centered during this journey. His silly rose petal fantasies invigorate him, but still all he does is anger people, smoke weed and flip burgers.
At the climax, he sees Angela for what she is and he understands who he needs to be. His lust for this girl transforms into a lust for life. He asks about others with genuine concern. He makes Angela a sandwich, asks about his daughter. Spacey's transformation is night and day. His arc represents the idea that death and wisdom go together. The smile Lester gives when he learns his daughter's happy and in love might've sealed the Oscar for him.
Colonel and Mrs. Fits don't talk. Mendes will show them right next to each other on the sofa but a world apart. Colonel Fits pours his energy into watching Ricky, who's dealing drugs right under his nose. The Colonel has a hair-trigger temper, showing a lack of the discipline he tries to beat into Ricky. It'll cause you to wonder how this guy made it so far up the chain of command, colonels report to generals. So many problems come from this guy's prying and spying.
Mrs. Fits maintains an empty glare, with big old sad eyes. She's subservient, and her needs have been neglected for years. She probably just wonders what can she do for her husband's love? I doubt she says more than 20 words the entire movie, but they reveal her defective selflessness and her feeling of unworthiness.
A lot's been made about the stereotypical characters and plot line. The writer (Alan Ball) and director were apparently aware these roles are almost like caricatures and the actors play along. Almost everyone is over the top delusional until a moment of truth, which gives clearer insights into the characters. The only people who don't seem delusional are Ricky and Jane, but Ricky's riffs on beauty are a little sentimental, and his response to seeing Lester at the end just seems disconnected from reality. Then again nobody's reaction in that last scene makes any sense.
We're told to "Look Closer," to see through the facades people desperately uphold. Sam Mendes directs with impeccable framing and staging of his shots, especially when he introduces the characters. Mendes artfully shows us the trouble with the people and relationships being portrayed. These portraits feature still or very slowly moving shots that allow characters' postures and expressions to reveal some truth.
Mendes clues us in to the tensions between facade and reality. Granted, the two Jims and the real estate "king" aren't exactly multilayered, so some stereotypes aren't subverted or redeemed. These characters are justifiable because they're necessary and instrumental in helping us to know the core characters. American Beauty is not concerned with kind, well adjusted, virtuous people. Lacking minorities, it provides flavor by showing middle class people faking it alone, together. It's a very good movie with a clear viewpoint. Go see it.