American Beauty

American Beauty, is apparently a widely beloved film, I surmised this based on the gasps and awkward looks I received when I said that I had not seen it. After watching it this past week I can understand why. If I were to try to describe the movie to someone else who had not seen it without giving anything away, I would tell them that the film is for lack of a better term a wonderful clusterfuck.

 I love movies that attack what to me is the absolutely ludicrous idea of the nuclear family. This statement is not meant to be an affront to anyone belonging to such a family; but rather the notion of an idyllic, and pristine family, as portrayed on shows like Leave it to Beaver. That whole deal makes me sick. So, you can imagine my relief when the façade of such a family quickly unravels in the film. Despite the Burnham family’s best effort to portray themselves as such, it is abundantly clear that they hate each other.

The first character to “cast off the veil” so to speak, is the Father, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey); he is also fittingly the character who is the most comfortable living with said veil removed. Not long into the movie, he begins acting out, perhaps due to a mid-life crisis, but whatever the reason is, Lester starts smoking pot, quits his job (only to take another job at a local burger joint), and having sexual fantasies about his daughter’s best friend. Just about every middle-aged Dad in the world would probably daydreams about living the life that Lester creates for himself, but doesn’t have the stones to   go through with it.

Lester Burnham is not, however, the only member of the Burnham clan who starts behaving bizarrely in the film, his jilted wife also begins acting strangely, she starts sleeping with her boss, shooting guns, and flying off the handle at the slightest provocation from Lester- suffice to say that just about every member of the family, including their daughter gets drug into the whirlpool of selfish indifference; making for a rollercoaster ride of a movie. American Beauty is a film full of self indulgent and fucked up people, whose personas and actions do not necessarily match up. No doubt a device utilized by the writer of the film to keep you guessing right up until the very end.  For those of you who’ve not seen the movie, I encourage you to check it out.  My scant use of details is deliberate, as to not give away too much for anyone who has not seen the movie; and for those of you who have seen it, I’m sure you had little trouble filling in the blanks.