“I feel like I’ve been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I’m just now waking up.” - Lester Burnham
American Beauty is a 1999 comedy drama film directed by Sam Mendes, and starring Annette Bening, and Kevin Spacey. The movie is about Lester Burnham (Spacey,) a 42 year old man whose marriage and life are tearing at the seams. Throughout the film, the lives of people related to Lester in some way are explored, including his own family, people he works with, his neighbors, and his acquaintances.
I wanted to take the time to talk about this movie in depth with no restraint on spoilers, but since I recognize that there are people who have not seen the film, I will first go over my basic thoughts of it, and get into the really in-depth stuff later in this review.
I will start by saying that this film is a true masterpiece, and I believe that it’s a film that should be seen by everyone at least once before they die. It’s a brilliant satire on the American dream, and many films (notably American Psycho and Birdman, to name a few,) have this movie to thank for its dark, uncompromisingly dry humor and scathing social commentary. The ‘90’s was a great decade for satires and dark comedies, and this is by far one of the best in that genre.
For the things I liked about the film, the musical score by my favorite composer, Thomas Newman, is absolutely phenomenal in every way, and the beautiful cover of the Beatles’ song Because, by the brilliant, and very sorely missed Elliott Smith, is a perfect way to end the movie. It’s haunting, and it gives me chills every time I hear it. The direction, writing, cinematography, characters, acting, and story are some of the best ever, and it’s no wonder that this movie is cemented as one of the best in film history. For the things I disliked about the movie… there is literally nothing I disliked about this film. If you haven’t seen American Beauty yet, I urge you to stop reading this review and go watch it immediately. If nothing else, it will change your perspective on the world, and cause you to look closer at everyday personality quirks of people. It’s an undisputed masterpiece, and if you haven’t seen it, you are truly missing out on one of the best examples of what film has to offer.
WARNING: From this point on, this review will contain spoilers.
Okay, now it’s time to really get into all of my in-depth thoughts on American Beauty. Here we go! At the beginning of the film, we see Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) laying down on a bed, talking to an unknown boy, who we find out later is her next door neighbor, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley). She says that she needs a dad who is a role model, and not someone who is more interested in her friend than herself. We are immediately informed that she resents her father, and considers him too pathetic to live.
Lester informs us in a voiceover that in less than a year, he’ll be dead. He then says “in a way, I’m dead already,” and we soon see why he says this. He’s a loser who hates his job, his marriage, and his life. He knows that his daughter and wife hate him, and think he’s a loser. To this he says “They’re right, I have lost something,” pauses, and then says “It’s never too late to get it back.” He actually understands that he’s a wreck, and that he’s lost something. His wife Carolyn is also a loser, but she doesn’t recognize she’s lost anything in the first place. She’s an uptight, nagging, phony who fakes her way through life, pretending to be happy all the time. This is why she feels such a connection to Buddy Kane. I’ll get to that later.
Jane Burnham is very insecure, and hates her parents, whereas Ricky Fitts, wants to appease his dad, to keep him out of his hair. Both of them have issues with their parents, which draws them closer to one another. Now let’s talk about Mena Suvari’s character, Angela Hayes. When Lester sees her for the first time, he is instantly infatuated with her. He develops an obsession with her, and she tries to seduce him, leading Lester to believe that she has had a great amount of experience with guys. After all, she certainly talks like it. She is an aspiring model, and she is always telling people about her countless sexual experiences.
I find the presence of roses in the movie interesting. The title of this movie actually refers to a type of rose that is beautiful at the surface but withers at the roots, similar to the lives of Carolyn and Lester Burnham. The roses symbolize all that Lester wants in life. They surround Angela constantly in Lester’s fantasies, and the roses show that Lester considers Angela the perfect woman. The roses are Lester’s dreams and aspirations. In an early scene, we see Carolyn cutting roses from her garden as Lester watches in disgust from his window. He says to the audience “We used to be happy.” When Carolyn trims the roses, we see that she is crushing his dreams. She is the reason Lester can’t have Angela. Lester meets Angela, and then Ricky. When he meets these two people, it triggers his quest to relive his glory days. This ultimately leads to his downfall.
Speaking of Ricky, when he meets Angela and Jane at the school, he doesn’t look once at Angela. He sees right through her act from the start. He recognizes that she is fake, and that Jane is genuine, and real. Angela craves constant attention, but never gets the kind she’s looking for, except from Lester. I want to call attention to a particularly genius moment in this film. During the party scene in which we are introduced to Buddy Kane, there is a moment where Kane seems to not remember Lester from previous encounters. Lester says “I wouldn’t remember me either,” and then looks directly into the camera and smiles at us. This is genius because for one, Lester is a character that is unforgettable in every way and by him breaking the fourth wall, it shows that he knows this. And for two, it’s almost as if he knows that something is going to happen that will make Buddy remember him forever, and during the scene where Buddy pulls up to the drive thru window with Carolyn, it does. When Lester looks at us and smiles, it’s like he’s saying “Just you wait. Something big is going to happen.”
One thing about Buddy Kane that makes him perfect for Carolyn is that he too is a phony. Nobody really knows how he’s feeling, because he always goes everywhere with a self righteous, dignified attitude. He wants to appear higher than everyone, and this is supported when he tells Carolyn that he believes that “In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times.” He is much too focused on his career and things that don’t matter, just like Carolyn.
When Carolyn tells Jane that “You cannot count on anyone except yourself,” she doesn’t realize that Lester isn’t counting on anyone either. She doesn’t see that Lester isn’t counting on her to change, and that he is taking it upon himself to try to start anew.
I would like to talk a little bit about Ricky’s dad Frank. I find him a particularly fascinating character, and trust me this movie is full of fascinating characters, but there is something especially intriguing about him. Even though I don’t like him, I sympathize with him. You sort of feel sorry for him by the end of the film, and that’s something I appreciate, because the film makes you feel sorry for a man who is not likeable at all. He has an incredibly controlling, intimidating presence, and he is shown twice in the film physically abusing Ricky, once when he finds out that Ricky was in his cabinet to show Jane a plate, and the second time when he thinks that Ricky is gay. It is also heavily hinted at that he has abused his wife on multiple occasions. He always introduces himself to people as “Colonel Frank Fitts, U.S. Marine Corps,” and always projects a macho, tough guy attitude. He expresses complete disgust towards gay people, and the thought of two people of the same sex living together as partners makes him sick. He even states that he would rather his son be dead than have him be gay. But, despite being outwardly homophobic, at the end of the film, he is revealed to be gay himself. While he was in the Marine Corps, he was around men all the time, and yet he was most likely told during his time there that being gay was wrong.
Frank tells Ricky during one of his outbursts that “You can’t do whatever you feel like. There are rules in life.” One could just assume that when he says this, he is telling Ricky that he can’t just go into his cabinet without asking. But if you look closer, you could also infer that he means this about gay people too, that being gay is against the rules that society has set. He hates the fact that he is gay, so he hides it by having a wife, and by being homophobic. He represses his homosexuality. When he thinks that Lester is gay too, he goes over to his house, and eventually tries to kiss him. When Lester tells him he’s got the wrong idea, Frank feels rejected, which is ultimately why he kills him. One could just infer that when he kisses Lester, he is just checking to see if he’s gay, and then kills him because he thinks that Lester has been involved sexually with Ricky. But I think that my first argument holds more water.
One thing that I adored in this film is how every song used in the movie means something. When Lester is using his bench press, he listens to All Along The Watchtower by Bob Dylan. In the song, it says “There must be some way out of here/There’s too much confusion/I can’t get no relief.” This fits perfectly because there is so much confusion in his life and he is trying desperately to find a way out. In another scene, Lester sings along to American Woman by The Guess Who. In this song it says “American woman/Stay away from me/American woman/Mama let me be.” This is fitting because it tells perfectly how he feels about Carolyn. Every song in this film has a meaning.
There is something that I noticed about this movie that I particularly love. All of the characters are ordinary until pushed to be unordinary. That to me is the central theme of the film. If you think about it, Lester is ordinary until he is pushed to relive his glory days, thus making him unordinary. Carolyn becomes unordinary when she starts hanging out with Buddy. Frank becomes unordinary when he thinks Lester is gay, and finally tries to relieve his frustration about being gay for presumably the first time in his life. Jane becomes unordinary when she leaves behind her insecurities. Ricky becomes unordinary during the incident where his father caught him smoking, which he tells Jane about. Success is what made both Buddy and Angela unordinary. With Buddy, it is in the real estate business, and with Angela, it is being a model. Every character has something about them that makes them unordinary, and like Angela says in the film, “There’s nothing worse in life than being ordinary.”
These are my thoughts on American Beauty, and I hope that this analysis has helped you to understand the film more deeply. This film is a masterpiece in my mind, and considering that this was director Sam Mendes’ first film, it’s all the more impressive. Sam Mendes’ direction combined with Alan Ball’s extremely intelligent script, Thomas Newman’s gorgeous score, Conrad Hall’s immaculate cinematography, and the spectacular acting of every member of the cast make this movie one that everybody needs to see at least once in their life. This movie is absolutely life-changing, and it is one of my top fifteen favorite films, if not even top ten.
Rating: R
Grade: A+
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