REEL REVIEW COLUMN: 'American Beauty' not ordinary
By JAMIE ANNEL
"American Beauty"
**** out of ****
"American Beauty" is the latest entry in that category of movies that focus on the confusing, depressing, and sometimes dark side of the "ordinary" American family. It is also the best film of the year so far.
Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, who tells us at the beginning of the film that he will be dead within a year. He's going through a bit of a midlife crisis, you see: bored with his job, frustrated with his wife, and unable to communicate with his teenage daughter.
But Lester's life is turned around when he falls for Angela (Mena Suvari), his daughter's best friend, and meets Ricky (Wes Bentley), the new kid next door. Lester's lust for Angela has him acting like a teenager again, while Ricky supplies him with marijuana and the courage to quit the job he hates.
Lester's daughter, Jane (Thora Birch), is disgusted by her father's attraction to Angela, but she's intrigued by Ricky, even though he has the strange habit of videotaping her through her bedroom window.
Carolyn (Annette Bening) doesn't seem to care what her husband or daughter are up to; she's more concerned with being a successful real estate agent. But Lester's self-awakening sets off a chain reaction that affects not only his own family, but Angela and Ricky as well.
Kevin Spacey and Wes Bentley are the standouts in an excellent cast, perhaps because their characters are in parallel situations. While Lester is trapped in a dying marriage, Ricky is dominated by his father, a former Marine who doesn't seem to know what to say to his son.
"American Beauty," which was written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes, starts out as a dark comedy, but by the end it unfolds into an intriguing drama. None of the characters turn out as one might expect, and that's the whole point. They may not all find their own happiness in the end, but at least they won't be ordinary.