★★★★★
(This review contains spoilers)
Directed by Sam Mendes, American Beauty is a 1999 movie that has won multiple Oscars including Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Film.
When we meet our protagonist Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), we find out he's a middle-aged man who despises his 9-5 job and is unhappily married to his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is an ambitious realtor. As if two constantly bickering parents in one household isn't bad enough, there is a third Burnham. Jane (Thora Birch), their sixteen year old daughter, is the epitome of a hormonal teenager. She's constantly fed up with her parents for always arguing with eachother which causes them to fight more and ultimately makes the whole dynamic of this family extremely chaotic.
After the Burnham family is properly introduced, we find out that a new family is moving into the Burnham's neighborhood. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper), a retired US Marine colonel, his paralyzed wife, Barbara (Allison Janney), and their adolescent son, Ricky (Wes Bentley), who compulsively records his surroundings with a camcorder, accumulating hundreds of recordings on video cassettes in his bedroom, while using his part-time waiter job as a front for distributing cannabis. Being an ex colonel, Frank is an extremely stern parental figure so when Frank discovered Ricky was dealing cannabis, he ordered him to enroll in a military academy and briefly put him to a psychiatric facility. Because of this, Ricky went off the grid for a few months.
After another couple, who happened to be gay, decided to welcome the new family into their neighborhood, Frank expressed his homophobia in the least subtle way when he later discussed the encounter with his son Ricky.
Jane, the Burnham's daughter, is also a Cheerleader at her High school. During one of the school's basketball games which Lester went to in order to support his daughter, he lays his eyes on Jane's friend Angela. Lester immediately becomes infatuated with Angela, so much so that he starts having sexual fantasies about her in which rose petals play an important role.
Throughout the film, rose petals are a repetitive theme. They can be seen in the background of a lot of scenes, most of which involve Lester and not to mention on top of Angela as well whenever Lester gets these "fantasies". There is no correct answer but in my opinion, these rose petals represent the illusion of beauty. The color red represents a fierce passion, which can be seen in Lesters attraction towards Angela. As soon as he saw Angela, he was obsessed with her, he described this as being in love. However Lester wasn't in love with Angela, he was in love with the idea of her, her youth and innocence, which is what ultimately makes his love towards her superficial. He was blinded by his irresistible pull towards Angela to realize the extent of what he was doing. The roses are also seen in Carolyn's garden and in the living room which again symbolizes the fact that on the surface their lives seem close to perfect, but once you take a closer look, everything begins to fall apart.
One example of this is how Carolyn and Lester's relationship, which seemed perfect, actually wasn't. While Lester was mentally cheating on his wife, Carolyn started having an affair with her business rival, Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher).
Lester wasn't doing too well either. After his boss tells him that he would be laid off, Lester blackmails him into giving him a bit of his check in advance and then quits his job which leads him to start working at a local fast food restaurant. Additionally, he decides that there's no more time to waste which is why he buys his dream car. This wasn't the only change that he implemented. After overhearing Angela tell Jane that he would be more attractive if he would improve his physique, Lester starts working out in order to impress Angela.
The parents' relationship was not the only relationship that was starting to go south. Jane and Angela's friendship wanes after Jane starts dating Ricky, the neighbors son. Angela thinks that Ricky is very strange which is why she doesn't support their relationship, and she makes sure they know it.
Lester then finds out about Carolyn's affair but doesn't seem to have a problem with it, Buddy however still decides to end it out of fear that his wife will figure it out and react the complete opposite of how Lester reacted. The embarrassment of this whole situation starts having a toll on Carolyn which is why she starts getting very anxious.
In the meantime Frank, their neighbor, starts getting sceptical of his sons involvement with Lester. Ricky claims they are just friends however Frank doesn't believe him since he found footage of a nude Lester lifting weights, which Ricky captured by accident. Frank then starts spying on Ricky and Lester and after wrongly concluding a drug transaction between them as a sexual act, he expels Ricky from his home.
We then see a distraught Carolyn sitting in her car and taking a handgun out of the glove department.
At home, Jane gets into an argument with Angela which was caused by Jane admitting that Angela flirting with her father makes her uncomfortable. As they are fighting, Ricky enters the room and asks Jane to run away with him to New York. Angela scoffs at this which is why Ricky is finally honest with her. He tells her that she is simply ugly, boring, and ordinary.
Frank then goes to confront Lester about the affair he thinks he's having with his son however instead of screaming at him, he starts breaking down and even attempts to kiss him. Lesters kindly rejects his advancements which is why we see Frank quickly fleeing the scene in embarrassment.
After this whole revelation, Lester goes back home where he finds Angela sitting alone in the dark. Ricky's words seemed to have really affected her which is why she asks him to tell her how beautiful he thinks she is; he does and they kiss. In this scene, we can see a pot with Red roses again symbolizing Lesters illusion of beauty towards Angela. As they are about to have sex, Angela admits that she is a virgin which destroys Lester's fantasies and causes him to stop his advancements. In this moment he saw Angela more as a daughter instead of for her beauty. Angela goes to the bathroom to get cleaned up and Lester sits down at the kitchen table where he admires a family photograph, seeming to have finally accepted his life the way it is.
In the next scene, an unseen character shoots Lester in the back of the head. Ricky and Jane hear the commotion downstairs which is when they find Lester's corpse on the kitchen floor. While this is all going on downstairs, Carolyn is in her closet getting rid of her gun and crying hysterically.
We then see Frank covered in blood returning back home, where a gun is missing from his collection.
The symbolism in this movie is absolutely amazing. Disregarding the red roses, having Frank kill Lester represents Frank's internalized homophobia. He believed that by getting rid of Lester, and therefore his attraction to him, it would kill the "gayness" in him and make him straight.
In Lester's final narration, he recounts significant events from his life, and he declares that, despite his death, he is content since the world is full of beauty.
I absolutely loved this film and the directors use of space and value in order to give the movie and especially scenes with Lester in them a truly isolating feeling. This took the meaning of "the hollow existence of the American suburbs" to a whole other level. Overall the movie was paced very well and it definitely pushed boundaries regarding how comfortable I was. Certain scenes were disturbing to say the least however I believe that this what made the movie even better. Movies are supposed to challenge the viewer and have an impact on them which American Beauty definitely achieved.
OKAY IM DEFINITELY WATCHING THIS MOVIE