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In the eye of the beholder
Posted Wed, 01 Mar 2000
Considered one of the best films about suburban America in decades, "American Beauty" is the critically lauded Dreamworks production that sweeped this year's Oscars.
Although weirdo filmmaker David Lynch has been making movies about the twisted underbelly of American suburbia for years, Alan Ball's (TV's "Cybill") deft screenplay for "American Beauty" offers an intriguing host of characters to which we all can relate.
Portrayed by a top-notch ensemble cast, the players in this modern-day morality play are mesmerising, complex studies of stereotypes. The film centres on the members of the Burnham family. Lester (Kevin Spacey - "The Usual Suspects") is 42 years old and in the throes of a mid-life crisis. His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening - "The American President"), has lost her capacity for joy and replaced it with an obsession for materialism. Both Lester and Carolyn have grown estranged from their angry teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch - "Now And Then").
But the Burnhams aren't the only fascinating figures in this portrait of middle-class Americana. A new family moves next door to them, becoming integral to their path of spiritual growth. The Fitts family comprises Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper - "October Sky"), a rigidly repressed ex-Marine who uses his fists to compensate for his inability to express emotion. The Colonel's wife, Barbara (Allison Janney - "Drop Dead Gorgeous"), is merely a shell of a human being who barely speaks, conquered by the harsh realities of life. But their son, Ricky (newcomer Wes Bentley), seems to be of a different breed entirely.
The eccentric Ricky walks around with a camcorder, constantly filming what he sees. He finds beauty in the most mundane environments and feels compelled to record everything he experiences in an attempt to preserve such beauty for memory. When Ricky encounters Jane Burnham, he is certain that she is beauty personified.
Jane and Ricky's burgeoning romance runs parallel to Carolyn's infidelity with a suave real estate agent (Peter Gallagher - "Short Cuts") as well as Lester's lustful attraction to Jane's cheer-leading best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari).
Says screenwriter Ball, "Lester's a man who in midlife has completely lost his passion for living, as do many people who have mind-numbing corporate jobs. He knows that he needs to get back in touch with that passion, and Angela is the catalyst for that. But he thinks she's the goal, and she's really just the knock on the door. At the risk of sounding incredibly lofty and pretentious, he needs to get back in touch with his spiritual connection to living."
Debut film director Sam Mendes, a celebrated British theatre director, invests "American Beauty" with sensibilities reminiscent of such classics as Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita" and Mike Nichols' "The Graduate". But his subtly surreal visual touches and his ability to coax perfect performances from his actors make "American Beauty" a fresh, invigorating viewing experience.
Both Spacey and Bening as well as the vastly underrated Chris Cooper never miss a beat. But the true revelation of the film is Wes Bentley as the kooky, self-assured Ricky. Why Bentley wasn't nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award is simply baffling.
Although uneasily dark, "American Beauty" is laced with a sense of optimism that transcends its tragic material. Says Spacey, "I just recognised it as a very important film about perceptions. I felt at that time that it was probably going to be ahead of its time. But now that I've seen it, I think it is kind of perfect for its time. I found it very uplifting in a lot of ways. I think it was also really very, very funny, and it sort of approached life with a sense of humour which I have a particular fondness for".
"American Beauty" won the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Directing and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards.
