A gorgeous satire

Rating: Null/10 (10 July 2000)

American Beauty was my pick for the best film of 1999. Every aspect of film making came together to make this movie great.
The script is darkly funny and is a very biting satire of all of us suburban middle class folks. In fact, I was a little scared when I could compare the characters to "normal" people I knew.
The acting was excellent. I can't imagine anyone other than Kevin Spacey in the role of Lester Burnham, who goes through a midlife crisis and wreaks havoc with the lives of everyone around him. The three young stars: Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, and Wes Bentley delivered on target performances. They add just the right amount emotional depth and pathos to save their characters from becoming the caricatures that they could have. Chris Cooper is the fascist neighbor, and an underused Allison Janney is his submissive wife. In a small comical role is Peter Gallagher, providing a foil for Annette Bening, who plays Spacey's wife. Bening's performance was perhaps the most widely criticize, but I thought it was excellent. She has been accused of being over the top. Of course she was over the top. That was the image of success her character was trying to project constantly, but when she stops projecting that image, we see a human side that is very touching in the film's final sequence.
The film has a good message about what beauty is, and Spacey's closing monologue brings everything to a close wonderfully. If the inevitable had come a half an hour earlier, it would seem less tragic, but that extra time gives the audience a chance to "look closer" and empathize with each character, even Chris Cooper's.
Also of note, is the beautiful cinematography. The use of color is striking, especially in the surreal dream sequences. This film definitely deserved the oscar it received for cinematography, as well as the other four oscars.
So, if you want to see what everyone has been talking about, you should see American Beauty. **** out of ****