Review:A movie full of beauty, wit and plenty of ideas to leave you thinking. 9/10.

Rating: Null/10 (20 February 2000)

What this movie is about is that everybody has some beauty in them, and that if you, as the tagline says, "look closer", you might see something unexpected.
The plot is about a middle-aged loser, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who is stuck in a dead-end job in American suburbia. His marriage with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) has gradually turned lifeless, and he has a difficult parental relationship with his daughter, Jane (Thora Birch). All that occupies his dull daily thoughts are his fantasies about Jane's best friend, the sexual predator, Angela (Mena Suvari). Next door are the Fitts family, who are even more dysfunctional than the Burnhams are. The father is a brutal ex-army general (Chris Cooper) who takes out his sexual frustration on his voyeuristic, dope-dealing teenage son, Ricky (Wes Bentley). Also around the house is the ghostlike mother (Allison Janney).
In the course of the story, the characters pair off with each other in unusual circumstances - again giving us new insights into their psyche that we never thought were there. The strangely obsessive Ricky and the repressed Jane; Carolyn and her real estate rival, "the King"; and our hero Lester, with Angela.
But this is only the most basic of plot descriptions. Allan Ball's script is punctuated with moments of uproariously funny encounters and observations, as we see Lester go through life discovering, in less than one year, what has taken him more than four decades to find existed. Kevin Spacey gives an outstanding performance as a once-boring man that has now learnt how to enjoy life, and is now hilariously unpredictable and spontaneous. He thoroughly deserves the Best Actor Oscar come this March. Spacey is also ably assisted by the marvelously materialistic Annette Bening and the charismatic Wes Bentley. In fact, Bentley's character, Ricky, is perhaps what Lester is aims his life at. Ricky has sensed the beauty of the world, and says that now he is "not afraid" of anything. Sam Mendes provides a stunning directorial debut, one that mirrors the materialistic world of suburban society at first, and then peels back the layers to reveal life's many dimensions. He too, deserves to be honoured at this year's Academy Awards.
Of course, there are flaws in this film, just like any other. Some may find the pace a bit slow going, and even more will find it a mite pretentious. But most will find American Beauty, if nothing else, entertaining and funny. It will win the Best Picture Oscar this year, and if for that reason alone, go see it.