Directed by: Sam Mendes
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Thora Birch
Lester (Kevin Spacey), a family man suffering through a mid-life crisis, who despises his job, became apathetic to everything which he considered his existence pointless, even his relationship with his wife is very frigid. He is married to Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is an ambitious real-estate broker, a miserable wife slowly driven by materialistic insanity and lacking sense of motherhood, her relationship with her husband as a wife has no time for any form of intimacy. Beneath the appearance of their marital happiness were the constant arguments, fighting and lack of love with each other. Jane (Thora Birch) is the low self-esteem 16 years old daughter. Next door are the new neighbors Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) a retired US Marine Corp Colonel and his wife Barbara (Alison Janney) and their son Ricky (Wes Bentley) who smokes marujuana and a drug dealer, despite his strict disciplinarian father he managed to conceal his drug activities. Lester started working out to gain the attention of his daughter’s friend Angela.
The cinematography of the film was excellent with superb clarity by Conrad L. Hall, the red roses petals became a visual poetry in the film. The story was written well by Alan Bal. The characters were exceptionally played; American Beauty mirrored the American life in a dark, painful irony and cynicism way. The ending of the film was tragic but comical.
References:
Nytime (2011) American Beauty [Online] Available at http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/091599beauty-film-review.html [23 March 2011]
Rolling Stone (2011) American Beauty [Online] Available at http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/american-beauty-19990915 [23 March 2011]
Salon (2011) American Beauty [Online] Available at http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/review/1999/09/15/beauty/index.html?CP=SAL&DN=110 [23 March 2011]
The Austin Chronicle (2011) American Beauty [Online] Available at http://www.austinchronicle.com/calendar/film/1999-09-24/140323/ [23 March 2011]
SF gate (2011) American Beauty [Online] Available at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1999/09/17/DD106066.DTL [23 March 2011]
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