Review By Peter Veugelaers © 2001
- See it or die!

 In hilarious style American Beauty satirises the midlife crisis by exaggerating it, and pulls the blinds on what is normally regarded as the conventional American suburban family, but what is an entanglement of dysfunctional behaviour.

 It observes the generation gap and the common dilemma modern day adolescents experience while being under the roof of their parents who seemingly have never been through what they have. It approaches the “coming of age” of its 40-year-old protagonist as tragi-comedy.

 Told through the eyes of frustrated and discontented Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey in a smart performance), he tries to relive his teenage years in reminiscences and experiences, teaming up with 18 year old next door neighbour Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), a supplier of drugs and who video tapes his daughter, Jane (Thora Birch). Jane feels neglected by Lester, who pays undue and incestuous attention to her teenage friend, Angela (Mena Suvari).

 To make matters more complex, Lester quits his job, takes up honesty as a virtue, and works in a takeaway, while he and his wife (Annette Bening) are collapsing at the seems. She panders to the notion that she is the only together person in the family but reinforces mantras in pop psychology fashion so she can believe she will sell real estate, then having an affair with a hot shot competitor.

 American Beauty is laugh out loud funny and at the same time tragic. It expels the myth of Brady Bunch Americana and refuses to accept that families are normal. Times have changed since The Waltons, but Beauty is aware of a nagging void in the American heart.

 The film’s central proposition, alluded to in the title, tries to bridge this gap with its own mantra of esoteric meaning behind the unobvious, a kind of divine revelation that offers hope. As all the adult characters are falling apart around him, it is the rejected and unusual young person, Ricky Fitts that significantly (because he is young) gets the meaningful monologue in the film:

 “Yesterday, I realised that there was this entire life behind things. And this incredibly benevolent force wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Maybe it is a poor excuse, I know, but it helps me remember. I need to remember. Sometimes there is so much beauty in the world I feel like I can’t take it. And my heart is just going to cave in.”