American Beauty (1999)

User Review

• 

  BarneyNuttall

  9 / 10

  American Beauty teeters on Screwball Comedy whilst latching onto its roots as a film engulfed in melancholia. Sam Mendes saccharine debut sees Kevin Spacey masterfully play Lester Burnham, a suburban father who appears pathetic to his wife Carolyn, played by a distraught Annette Bening, and is despised by his moody teenage daughter Jane. (Thora Birch) However, Lester's life is revitalized when he sees Jane's classmate Angela in a cheerleader recital. Lester quickly manages to reinvigorate his life, rebelling against normality as his family does the same.
  
  It would be misinformed to view the relationship between Lester and Angela as a Lolita-like relationship. Yes, his desire for a much younger girl is deeply wrong, however, it isn't so much a desire for Angela (who's surname plays tribute to Nabokov's titular character) but for what Angela represents in his life; youth and un-explored desire. Carolyn pursues the same by releasing her sexual frustration and visiting firing ranges while Jane sexually awakens when she becomes infatuated with Ricky (Wes Bentley), the boy next door who drives home the admittedly forced message of universal beauty in the film.
  
  Boasting impressive cinematography by Conrad Hall, American Beauty walks the line between realism and a cartoon nigtmare. The former is shown in Birch and Bentley's flat, monotone teenage performances which beg to be free of suburbia. On the other end of the spectrum, Spacey and Bening's performances are caricature-like and sharp. Similarly, Ricky's family, consisting of violent veteran father Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) and despondent, disillusioned mother Barbara Fitts (Allison Janney) almost fall into Lynchian suburbia, complete with flashing lights and a Lost Highway household. Mendes brilliantly melds the normal with the surreal, making American Beauty a tragi-comedy turned up to eleven, with hilarious yet tragic results.

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