At the end of Beauty , on the other hand, Lester continues his posthumous narration. His speech deliberately echoes an earlier one from Bentley's character, who speaks in awe of unexplainable yet unmistakable beauty. Lester, dead, is experiencing it in its purest form. The movie is saying that liberation and beauty are exactly the same. Beauty and a broken spirit, however, are polar opposites.
Redemption is a slightly better film in that regard.
Everyone in American Beauty is dying in some sort of trap, and the film uses the suburban setting to make it more accessible to the audience. Though the surface story may fail at some points, the engine that ultimately drives Beauty works astoundingly well. It's a wonderful film. Thanks for supporting Film Written Magazine.