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American Beauty is a film about life. It is a surburban drama which features what like is like in USA. This film is very bizarre in alot of other ways because of the fantasies that Lester has and what Ricky Fitts tries to prove when videoing things all the time. I personally think that at the start it seemed very female film because of the roses, visions etc but it is very male aswell. This is a film on drama, betrayal, obsession and about life in a new angle and in it's new way. It seemed a bit like a peaceful area because all of the houses and gardens within the neighbourhood look really clean and very beautiful but I find American Beauty to be a rather dark film. This film teaches the other side of America and what beautiful and natural things really are like. It tells taht side of the story because it gives that in the title. American Beauty is a very inspiring film that can warm people's hearts or can break them because of the events that take place within the film. Well, for me it did both of those things which is what a lot of other people would think of it.
Kevin Spacey gives the performance of his career. I knew that it was Spacey portraying Lester Burnham obviously but Lester is a character I can easily get the hang of and get to understand. Lester is suffering from a mid-life crisis because he ahtes his job, his bitch of a wife and young daughter who has a lot of problems against him. To take his mind off that he fantasises about and has a crush on his daughter Jane's friend Angela Hayes. Whatever character Kevin portrays for some reason he always makes me laugh even in The Usual Suspects. I found Lester really funny because he is very sarcastic with his wife which truly reveals that he hates her. Annette Bening added more spice to this film. Her performance was fantastic as Carolyn Burnham. She is the villain of this film because she always causes a fight with Lester. She is almost like a control freak who will lose control if she doesn't get what she wants but the main reason is because she ends up having an affair and cheating on Lester. They both have crushes and affairs without the other person even realising. Annette made me laugh aswell even though Carolyn is a greedy, selfish, careless and self-absorbed bitch she brings comedy together with Kevin Spacey. Thora Birch's performance as Jane Burnham was good but in my opinion could have been better. She is a nice looking woman now but I think she was a bit too ugly for Jane's character. Thora is a really powerful actress with a lot of character thouhg I really liked Wes Bentley as Jane's boyfriend and a really good friend of her father Lester Ricky Fitts. He seems like a charmer who people can fall for easily but also a complete slimeball with alot of dirty secrets by keeping lots of illegal drugs in his bedroom with faking a urine test by using someone else's so he can smoke and use the drugs. Mena Suvari was really good as Angela Hayes. Mena was an adult at the time this film was released because I realised this after seeing American Pie which was released in the same year as American Beauty, Mena really looked like a young irresistible teenager so personally I don't blame Lester for falling for her. I liked Chris Cooper too as Colonel Frank Fitts who is strict, abusive, bully, homophobic and controlling particularly against his son Ricky.
Sam Mendes gives his first and best film of his whole career. He hasn't done many films at all but they are all good films. Mendes makes American Beauty one of the most powerful films ever made. Mendes? directing career starting with American Beauty makes it the greatest film directing debut of all time. The closest rival in my opinion is Orson Welles as both actor and director in Citizen Kane. Sam Mendes wanted us to be trapped in a circle so to speak to get into the characters and to get into the chemistry between them. Alan Ball writes a very good script which is very original. I find pretty much all of original scripts to be the same.
American Beauty is one of my favourite dramas, one of my favourite film partnerships, a tie for best film of 1999 with The Green mile, Kevin Spacey's best, Sam Mendes' best, the greatest directing debut ever, one of the most powerful and beautiful films of all time with one of the biggest meaning, a close collision of best film of 1990's with Forrest Gump, The Green Mile and Fight Club. I will never forget American Beauty because it is a treasured piece of art for me which makes it one of the best films ever!
10/10
