American Beauty ««««
R, 120m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham), Annette Bening (Carolyn Burnham), Thora Birch (Jane Burnham), Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts), Mena Suvari (Angela Hayes), Chris Cooper (Colonel Fitts), Peter Gallagher (Buddy Kane), Allison Janey (Barbara Fitts). Screenplay by Alan Ball. Directed by Sam Mendes.
A friend of mine from high school who I still keep in touch with recently told me how it was time for him to make some changes in his life. His name is Kelly Reed. He wanted a job he enjoyed with a good income so he and his wife can move into a nice house and maybe, perhaps in a year or so, have kids.
Kelly told me how those years of living in Taiwan, teaching, working in sales and traveling overseas to different countries he had never been to, much less dreamed of seeing like Australia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, were a joy. That was all great while he was still in his 20s, he said. Now he is 30 years old and the time has come for him to settle down.
I thought about what he said and then I thought about Lester Burnham, the hero in American Beauty, brilliantly portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who at 42-years-old decides it is time to make some drastic changes in his own life, even if his loving wife, Carolyn (Annette Benning), and daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), (if you call them that) don’t approve much less understand.
I doubt Kelly will ever go through the same midlife crisis Lester does. Lester has everything Kelly hopes to have and probably has to an extent already; a home, a job and a family. It doesn’t take us long, however, to realize that maybe we don’t quite long for what Lester has.
Carolyn is the equivalent of those TV show moms you see on Happy Days (1974-1984) and Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963) where the mothers are always dressed in their Sunday best and greet neighbors with the warmest smile. When it comes to her husband and daughter, however, Carolyn gives them the cold shoulder. Their weekly dinners are like the ones Charles Foster Kane and his wives had in Citizen Kane (1941) where two adults were seated at both ends of the table a mile away from each other. In American Beauty, it’s the daughter who sits in the middle.
All three eat in complete silence with the exception of a Frank Sinatra CD that plays in the background and Lester’s feeble attempts to make small talk with Jane that ends with her leaving the room.
Carolyn is a real estate agent and a perfectionist in her work. She is the kind of a person who took those confidence classes in college where they teach you to say, “I will sell this house” so many times until you are convinced you will do so only to fail miserably with the day’s list of clients.
Jane, on the other hand, seems to personify the kinds of teenagers most parents, if not all, might encounter; angry and rebellious. She sports shabby clothes not only so she can look unattractive but to rebel against her parents. She is confused, repeatedly refuses her father’s attempts to have meaningful chats and thinks both her parents are an embarrassment.
You can understand Lester’s reason for staring so blankly out the window one morning. It is clear something is missing from his life.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn’t always feel this sedated,” he tells us off screen in the beginning.
You know something is amiss when the only “high point” of his day is masturbating in the shower when he wakes up.
“It’s all downhill from here,” he adds.
What is that “something” Lester lost? Perhaps he forgot what it was like to smoke a joint behind a building while no one else was watching and how invigorating it must have felt. He does just that with Jane’s new boyfriend, a mysterious reclusive new kid (Wes Bentley) who just moved in next door.
Perhaps he forgot what it is like to be in love with the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. That woman comes in the form of a cheerleader named Angela (Mena Suvari) who Lester sees dancing while watching his daughter perform at a high school basketball game. Angela often comes to Lester in dreams being covered in only red rose petals, which sets off the beginning of both his physical and mental transformation.
He starts working out in the garage and has had enough with the boss’ interoffice politics at his job. At one point, he trades the family car in for the one thing he has always wanted; a 1970 Pontiac Firebird.
When Carolyn refuses to get into a sexually playful mood because she doesn’t want to get their expensive couch dirty, Lester lashes out.
“This isn’t life,” he tells her. “This is just stuff. And it’s become more important to you than living.”
American Beauty comes at a time when society wonders whether parents today pay too little attention to their kids because they’re too busy with their professions and material things. So many family dysfunctional issues come up during the film that I wouldn’t have been surprised if a school shooting did occur or a suicide.
The movie presents the dark side of American suburbia. It is the notion that things aren’t so rosy behind the closed doors of all those beautifully painted homes and manicured lawns on the outside.
What makes it funny is the way Lester rebels against his family. He is like Michael Douglas’ unemployed “D-FENS” worker in Falling Down (1993) who decides to take up arms against an uncaring society. The only difference with Lester is he has everything and doesn’t care if he loses it all.
American Beauty says a couple things. It might turn out the best things we have and have done in life are staring us right in the face. Some of us have become so oblivious to such things that we’ve have never taken the time out to appreciate them.
There is also a flip side to that.
It is ok to do what’s required of you provided you don’t lose your zest for life. Lester Burnham did the same thing for so long that he forgot what it was like to “live.” I can’t say his transformation is a positive one but at least he found happiness; the one thing apparently missing from his life for so many years.
©3/20/00
R, 120m. 1999
Cast & Credits: Kevin Spacey (Lester Burnham), Annette Bening (Carolyn Burnham), Thora Birch (Jane Burnham), Wes Bentley (Ricky Fitts), Mena Suvari (Angela Hayes), Chris Cooper (Colonel Fitts), Peter Gallagher (Buddy Kane), Allison Janey (Barbara Fitts). Screenplay by Alan Ball. Directed by Sam Mendes.
Kelly told me how those years of living in Taiwan, teaching, working in sales and traveling overseas to different countries he had never been to, much less dreamed of seeing like Australia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, were a joy. That was all great while he was still in his 20s, he said. Now he is 30 years old and the time has come for him to settle down.
I thought about what he said and then I thought about Lester Burnham, the hero in American Beauty, brilliantly portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who at 42-years-old decides it is time to make some drastic changes in his own life, even if his loving wife, Carolyn (Annette Benning), and daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), (if you call them that) don’t approve much less understand.
I doubt Kelly will ever go through the same midlife crisis Lester does. Lester has everything Kelly hopes to have and probably has to an extent already; a home, a job and a family. It doesn’t take us long, however, to realize that maybe we don’t quite long for what Lester has.
Carolyn is the equivalent of those TV show moms you see on Happy Days (1974-1984) and Leave It To Beaver (1957-1963) where the mothers are always dressed in their Sunday best and greet neighbors with the warmest smile. When it comes to her husband and daughter, however, Carolyn gives them the cold shoulder. Their weekly dinners are like the ones Charles Foster Kane and his wives had in Citizen Kane (1941) where two adults were seated at both ends of the table a mile away from each other. In American Beauty, it’s the daughter who sits in the middle.
All three eat in complete silence with the exception of a Frank Sinatra CD that plays in the background and Lester’s feeble attempts to make small talk with Jane that ends with her leaving the room.
Carolyn is a real estate agent and a perfectionist in her work. She is the kind of a person who took those confidence classes in college where they teach you to say, “I will sell this house” so many times until you are convinced you will do so only to fail miserably with the day’s list of clients.
Jane, on the other hand, seems to personify the kinds of teenagers most parents, if not all, might encounter; angry and rebellious. She sports shabby clothes not only so she can look unattractive but to rebel against her parents. She is confused, repeatedly refuses her father’s attempts to have meaningful chats and thinks both her parents are an embarrassment.
You can understand Lester’s reason for staring so blankly out the window one morning. It is clear something is missing from his life.
“I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn’t always feel this sedated,” he tells us off screen in the beginning.
You know something is amiss when the only “high point” of his day is masturbating in the shower when he wakes up.
“It’s all downhill from here,” he adds.
What is that “something” Lester lost? Perhaps he forgot what it was like to smoke a joint behind a building while no one else was watching and how invigorating it must have felt. He does just that with Jane’s new boyfriend, a mysterious reclusive new kid (Wes Bentley) who just moved in next door.
Perhaps he forgot what it is like to be in love with the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. That woman comes in the form of a cheerleader named Angela (Mena Suvari) who Lester sees dancing while watching his daughter perform at a high school basketball game. Angela often comes to Lester in dreams being covered in only red rose petals, which sets off the beginning of both his physical and mental transformation.
He starts working out in the garage and has had enough with the boss’ interoffice politics at his job. At one point, he trades the family car in for the one thing he has always wanted; a 1970 Pontiac Firebird.
When Carolyn refuses to get into a sexually playful mood because she doesn’t want to get their expensive couch dirty, Lester lashes out.
“This isn’t life,” he tells her. “This is just stuff. And it’s become more important to you than living.”
American Beauty comes at a time when society wonders whether parents today pay too little attention to their kids because they’re too busy with their professions and material things. So many family dysfunctional issues come up during the film that I wouldn’t have been surprised if a school shooting did occur or a suicide.
The movie presents the dark side of American suburbia. It is the notion that things aren’t so rosy behind the closed doors of all those beautifully painted homes and manicured lawns on the outside.
What makes it funny is the way Lester rebels against his family. He is like Michael Douglas’ unemployed “D-FENS” worker in Falling Down (1993) who decides to take up arms against an uncaring society. The only difference with Lester is he has everything and doesn’t care if he loses it all.
American Beauty says a couple things. It might turn out the best things we have and have done in life are staring us right in the face. Some of us have become so oblivious to such things that we’ve have never taken the time out to appreciate them.
There is also a flip side to that.
It is ok to do what’s required of you provided you don’t lose your zest for life. Lester Burnham did the same thing for so long that he forgot what it was like to “live.” I can’t say his transformation is a positive one but at least he found happiness; the one thing apparently missing from his life for so many years.
©3/20/00
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