Good, but Donnie Darko is far better

Rating: Null/10 (17 March 2003)

This is a good movie. It accurately presents adult feelings of wanting to feel alive and in love and loved and desired and younger. But the movie is depressing for its own sake, and that doesn't elevate it to the status of high art. You don't have to be boring and wear black and hang out constantly in coffee houses or love Fight Club to be deep. The irony is that what Spacey's character is after is more joy, but I doubt many of American Beauty's (or Fight Club's) fans are joyful, truly passionate, courageously passionate people. Those types of people will prefer Donnie Darko, and they will get to use their brains, as well as their hearts, so much more intensely watching that film. Indeed, Mendes' follow-up effort, The Road to Perdition, deals adeptly and emotionally with fathers and sons and is probably a better movie than American Beauty.