Highly stylized & wicked flick

Rating: Null/10 (27 September 2004)

Highly stylized account of lives of quiet desperation. Kevin Spacey & Annette Bening are husband & wife passing each other on the escalators of middle class mobility.
Foremost: Annette Bening is like super incredible. I always though she was just some babe that had something to do with Warren Beatty. Wow!: that scene where she convulses into tears after the open house. Is that what they call visceral acting? I've seen American Beauty 4 or 5 times, & each time that scene sends chills up my spine. Her whole quirky, esteem less, desperate-for-attention persona places her on par with Streep et al.
American Beauty is a fascinating example of the notion of imagination forcing a disconnection with consciousness. Spacey's fantasies about the teenager & the Marine neighbor: more elements of horror than titillation. If you like something beyond being passively entertained, see American Beauty. Post-pop priestess, pre-American Idol Paula Abdul choreographed the cheerleader sequences.