A dark comical masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (18 November 2001)

American Beauty (1999) Starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening. Running time: 121 minutes. Rated R for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content.
Meet Lester Burnham(Kevin Spacey). He's 42 and he's having a mid-life crisis. His marriage to his wife Carolyn(Annette Bening) is on the verge of falling apart and his daughter Jane(Thora Birch) hates him. One night while at a basketball game, Lester spots Jane's friend Angela(Mena Suvari). Lester immediately falls in love. He then decides that this will be his last chance at true happiness in his life. So he quits his job and begins working out. On a minor note, Jane falls in love with the boy who lives next door named Ricky Fitts(Wes Bentley) whose father, Colonel Frank Fitts(Chris Cooper) is a homophobe.
This is indeed the best movie of 1999. Kevin Spacey has never been better on film. He really deserved the Oscar for Best Actor. I'm surprised that he was able to top his Oscar-winning performance as Verbal Kint from "The Usual Suspects" in 1995 because many actors are rarely able to top a performance. Annette Bening was great also as the obsessive and frustrated Carolyn who later decides that enough is enough and goes to sleep with a rival realtor. The supporting performances are great as well especially from Thora Birch who befriends Ricky. She at first hates him because he's always filming her, as he says that he finds her interesting and later falls in love with him. Wes Bentley should have gotten an Oscar nomination for his performance as the troubled and misunderstood Ricky.

I really liked this movie a lot. I missed it when it was released into theaters. I didn't get a chance to see it until it came on HBO last year.

10/10