American Beauty

Finally, Scott Bakula is in a good movie.

This movie has had me intrigued since the first preview I saw. What a cast! Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Chris Cooper, Mena Suvari… What more could you want in a cast?

The plot doesn’t sound like much, but, like the ads say, look closer. Lester Burnham (Spacey) is a self-proclaimed loser. He’s unhappy at home and at work (sounds like someone I can relate to). His wife, Carolyn (Bening), is a self-absorbed career woman who really doesn’t have time for her family. She’s also the martyr of the family. If anything goes wrong she’s quick to make everyone feel bad about it and make it seem like they did it just to piss her off. Their daughter, Jane (Birch-Paradise, Now And Then), is a pretty typical teenager. She hates her family and wants to leave as soon as possible. Her best friend, Angela (Suvari-American Pie) is “the most beautiful girl in the school.” Unfortunately, she’s also an evil seductress who wants everyone to bow down to her. The guys next door to the Burnhams, Jim and Jim (Bakula-Quantum Leap, Lord Of Illusions-and Sam Robards-son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall), are gay. This really makes the new neighbor, Colonel Fitts (Cooper-October Sky, Lone Star, a lot of John Sayles other movies), pretty mad since he’s a retired Marine colonel who has such a closed mind that different ideas actually run from it. His wife, Barbara (Allison Janney-10 Things I Hate About You, Private Parts, Six Days Seven Nights), is so afraid of him that she stays quiet all the time, never interfering with the fights that her husband and son, Ricky (Wes Bentley-Beloved), have. And they have some big fights. Ricky is the local drug dealer/psycho boy. He video tapes everything because of life’s beauty. He intimidates people by starring at them just a little too long. He watches (and tapes) Jane from his window at night. Then he asks her dad, during a party, if he smokes pot. Somehow, he keeps his family in the dark about how he gets the money to buy all of his electronic equipment even though his dad makes him take a pee test every six months. (Now who’s the psycho?)

One day, though, Lester snaps. He starts doing whatever he feels like whenever he feels like it. Things start to fall apart, but he is finally happy. And there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?

Any more I tell you about the plot would do you an injustice. You shouldn’t go into this movie knowing too much. It won’t ruin it (in fact, I already want to see it again), but it will take away some of the surprises.

This is the best movie I’ve seen all year. I know I said that about South Park, but this one is actually Oscar-worthy. (South Park would never win. Too controversial for the modern Academy.) This one shows suburbia at its most realistic. Not the clean perfection of Leave It To Beaver. Not the uber-psycho of Blue Velvet. Not the creepy color of Edward Scissorhands. Although it has all of that, it somehow rises above it to become the best imagining of suburban life I’ve ever seen. Not that any of those other images are bad. Well, except maybe Leave It To Beaver. Blue Velvet and Edward Scissorhands are great movies, and I know they’re not supposed to be realistic. I’ve lived in suburbia just about all my life and this is what it’s like. Little stories that seem big or become big. That’s life in all it’s glory.

The performances in this film were nearly perfect. Spacey was absolutely amazing in his role as the disillusioned suburban father who just can’t take it anymore. He’s at turns hilarious and tragic. As he becomes more of a winner you really want him to win even though you know what happens from the very beginning. (Spacey wins my vote for “Best Narration From Beyond The Grave Since Sunset Boulevard.” One of his first lines in the movie is something like, “In less than a year, I’ll be dead.” So I’m not giving anything away.) Annette Bening is just as good as his hard-headed wife who won’t give an inch. She and Spacey both put in two of their best performances ever. And that’s saying quite a bit. I was personally scared of Chris Cooper, and yet I saw something in his eyes that told me what he was really scared of. And there was a strange sweetness in Wes Bentley’s eyes even in the beginning when we’re supposed to be wondering if he’s really the weirdo that he seems to be. Even if he looks a little too much like Joaquin Phoenix. And, of course, Thora and Mena were both beautiful. And, strangely enough, we see more of both of them than I ever thought we would! That was pretty surprising. Nice surprise, though.

This was director Sam Mendes’s first feature and I can’t wait for his second. His experience in the theatre helped this movie immensely. (He has directed the revival of Cabaret and The Blue Room–that one where Nicole Kidman shows her butt.) His use of theatrical lighting brought a fairy tale quality to the proceedings without taking us so far out of the story that we dropped our concern.

His music was awesome, too. The score fit the actions perfectly and the music that the characters played fit the mood. From the first dinner scene (they always listen to music during dinner) where they’re listening to “Bali Hi” from South Pacific (the theme for the “perfect place” in the musical) to the last dinner scene where we hear “Call Me Irresponsible.” And Spacey’s classic rock while he’s working out brought out the rebellion in him.

When he learned about widescreen, he ran with it. Since this isn’t a big-budget epic we don’t really expect much in the way of scope. I can’t imagine this one being paned and scanned on tv, though. There are too many scenes where we need the full emptiness of the frame. It helps to convey the loneliness of the characters. As soon as they shrink it down on the small screen it’ll lose all of that.

Basically, there’s nothing wrong with this film. for its entire two hour time span I never looked at my watch and I kept thinking, “I hope this doesn’t end any time soon.” That’s the real test of a movie.

This is another dark comedy without a happy ending that almost makes you feel good. Not because the main character dies, but because he lived. And maybe, through his living, you can think about doing the same. Maybe you can grab life by the cajones and take it on full steam ahead. Maybe you can do something for yourself that makes you raise your fist defiantly into the air and say “I RULE!!!”