"American Beauty" 1999

“American Beauty”

I went to this movie on my annual movie marathon to watch all the Best Picture nominees. I wasn’t familiar with Kevin Spacey. I hadn’t seen “The Usual Suspects”. I knew Annette Bening, but wouldn’t call myself a fan. I knew her mostly from her supporting role in “The Great Outdoors”. Not exactly cinematic gold. This movie changed my mind about both of them. It is a perfect marriage of the actors and roles.

From the opening scene we know that Lester Burnham is going to die. We spend the whole movie waiting for that inevitable moment. Kevin Spacey is a revelation in this movie. He starts out a wilted man going through the motions of his life. Then one night he goes to see his daughter perform in a half time show and sees her best friend.

Suddenly everything about his life becomes crystal clear. His job is a dead end, his brittle wife doesn’t love him and his daughter is mortified by his mere existence. Angela Hayes, played by Mena Suvari, represents his youth and all his broken dreams. The responsibility of life is suddenly too heavy to carry, so he tosses it aside.

Lester seems taller immediately. He has a goal and grabs it with both hands.

Carolyn’s hard mask is controlled chaos. She is determined to be seen in a certain way. Her defining scene is when she is selling the house. She strips to her undergarments to clean it with a frantic intensity. Her announcement that she will sell this house today is a mantra from her fragile soul. She needs to succeed. She needs to overcome her childhood. She is afraid to show any vulnerability and her husband’s midlife crisis starts showing the cracks in her façade.

Jane is numb. She has been caught between her parents for so long, just trying not to be noticed that when Ricky incites feelings it shocks her. When she exposes herself to him at her window she is baring her soul to him. In her Ricky sees his soul mate, another person so lonely that they need to cling to one another to survive.

Ricky is also caught between loving his parents and needing to get away from them. His vacant mother and his father who can’t be summed up in a word. Chris Cooper as Frank Fitts was amazing. When he enters the garage that last night and kisses Lester it is shocking. Kevin Spacey is gentle and non-judging, but something inside of Frank Fitts shatters in shame.

Angela presents herself to Lester hoping he will make her feel beautiful and wanted. For a moment he has what he wanted the whole movie. The seductive sex kitten is there asking to be loved.

It is an incredible scene. She lays exposed and Lester can’t believe his luck. He moves in, ready to the fantasy and touch his own youth when she apologizes in advance for her lack of experience. Suddenly the light changes and Lester sees the young girl, a child really laying in front of him. He realizes he can’t take her.

He makes her a sandwich. He tells her she’s beautiful.

When she leaves the room he sits at the table looking at a photo of Carolyn. It is a Carolyn we’ve never seen. She is happy. A gentle smile falls onto his face at the precise moment he is shot.

I walked out of this movie knowing I had seen something truly special. I had gone with my sister. I turned to her and said “Wow”. She rolled her eyes and said, “What a pervert, I can’t believe he was going to have sex with that girl.”

It was eye opening for me. I was flabbergasted that two people could see the same movie and walk away with such different impressions. From that moment on I only went to romantic comedies with my sister. The good ones I save for myself.