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American Beauty (The Awards Edition) Customer Reviews (70 - 72 of 109 Reviews)

American Tragedy
"American Beauty" is about Lester Berman who is ignored by his wife, despised by his daughter, and is deeply unsatisfied with his job. Here is a man, so brilliantly portrayed by Kevin Spacey, who so desperately wants to bond and fails at every turn. His wife, done to the hilt by Annette Benning, is a perky, go-get-em real estate broker who, despite her overachieving personality, is apparently unfulfilled with her marriage and her career. The only difference between she and Lester is that Lester doesn't hide his feelings and often offends his wife during their regular spats. Their teenage daughter doesn't seem to care much for either parent, and gets involved with a creepy next-door-neighbor (Wes Bentley) who's being raised by his near comatose mother and tough-as-nails Marine dad.

Saying more would spoil it for you, but the movie is an original piece of work that snubs the conventions of modern filmmaking. Its commentaries on dysfunctional relationships, homophobia, isolation, and stereotypes are so dead-on. Sam Mendes directs the film with style and craft, and the screenplay is so wittily written. The DVD is also a solid package. There's a commentary by the director and screenwriter, as well as a brief documentary, and trailers. Of course, they could have put more effort into adding extra features in this DVD, but the film alone is worth the price.

An amazing film
I thought this movie was awful. It's amazing to me how anyone could like this. I couldn't wait for it to be over. I had to rate it when I saw how many people thought it was a masterpiece? This simplistic piece of badly acted crap? The situaion with the father and the teenage girl is almost child pornography.

AN EXQUISITE AFFIRMATION OF LIFE
On the surface, this stunner from Sam Mendes is such a relentlessly bleak look at the vacuity of the supposed "American Dream" that viewers may just turn off to it en masse. And it shows in the acute polarization of reviews here on Amazon.

But if you can be a little less knee-jerk and not shut off all rational thought when confronted with what's disturbingly familiar, you may also find that the film is genuinely, voraciously amusing, and directed with such breathtaking flair that Spacey's bravura performance seems like a career-defining one.

Beneath the surface of all the seeming pettiness in our daily idiosynchrasies, the theme points out, is an entire world of such simple elegance that chortles to be seen and heard, but is neither recognized nor heeded to.

An interesting visual device in the film is the use of windows. Not just a use, but a splurge, come to think of it. Almost everything important happens in front of, around, or through windows. Could this be a metaphor perhaps for self-examination, for viewing one's life from the outside?

What I do not understand is why most films in this genre (Ice Storm, Ordinary People) end with a dramatically tragic finale. Does it take a shattering turn of events to break everyone out of their daily reverie? Something to think about.

Any rate, long story short: an evocative gem you need to own.

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