The hype was well deserved-excellent movie.

Rating: 10/10 (27 November 2003)

Here's a film that was as outstanding as the buzz made it out to be. I'm not surprised this won an academy award. American Beauty was an excellent movie, both tragic and powerful, extremely engrossing and well acted.
The movie touches on subject matters that maybe controversial but are very real. Who really knows what happens behind anybody's' closed doors and who really knows who another human being truly is 100 percent of the time? This movie is very "unhollywood" and still managed to fascinate many. I know very few who have viewed this and not liked it and at least its a movie one has to respect even if they do not personally love it, it doesn't play by the rules in the slightest, no "by the numbers" plot here, and it doesn't cop out on any level.
I must mention the performances by everyone-the whole cast was great and helped make the film what it was. American Beauty is one of those films that's just a good, quality piece of work. It's Oscar win is justified.
I love movies where the characters actually have some basis in reality. The characters are all very much that in American Beauty. These people are not "carricitores", they could be our friends, our neighbors or even ourselves. The movie works on every level. To sum up- Very well done movie, and a 10 of 10.