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EVERY once in a while there comes a film which takes an almighty swipe at the American way of life, the American dream-turned-nightmare and American Beauty does just that. Set in American suburbia, it uses the Burnham family as the idiom of hypocrisy, materialism and double-standards but does not confine itself on to them. There are others and with an amazing insight into human nature and a false society, director Sam Mendes weaves a web of deception and intrigue around these key characters and their futile efforts at striving for happiness which for them is, at best, a mirage.
Whether the title refers to Angela, who seems to be the typical American beauty, or the roses grown by Carolyn or the great American dream of success and riches, it is hard to say, but before the end of the show one is quite cathartic about life itself. If Lester tries to give more meaning to life by quitting his boring life he is not helped one bit by his success-obsessed wife Carolyn. The daughter is a plain Jane. There’s nothing she detests more than being ordinary and that is what she thinks her family is. So she uses her friend Angela to indulge in her fantasies and when she finds her young neighbour Ricky Fitts (West Bently) willing, she uses him to get out of her mundane existence. |
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| But there is also Colonel Fitts (Chris
Cooper), a man so regimented in his ways that all he sees
in his son Ricky is an army cadet who has to be
"spit and polished" into an officer. As for his
wife Barbara (Allison Janney) she is like a zombie whose
presence in the household is purely physical. She has
ceased to exist years ago. Based on an imaginative screenplay by Alan Ball, American Beauty takes a candid look at the contemporary American society in all its variety and eccentricities. And director Sam Mendes making his cinema debut (after distinguishing himself in English theatre) really goes to town in the delineation of his characters. Not in a long while has one come across such richly rounded figures. The pace is halting and reminiscent of European cinema and the anecdotes often resorting to black humour. When Lester looks for rejuvenation in the form of his daughter’s friend Angela it is not just male menopause. It is the negation of 14 years of being a whore to the advertising business. What is he looking for? "Don’t placate me, like your mother," he tells his daughter Jane. It seems to be a gender thing for Lester. And when he dares to change his life he does so out of sheer boredom. "I m just an ordinary guy with nothing to lose," he says. After weaving its way lackadaisically for over 100 minutes the events around these half-a-dozen-odd characters gather momentum and dramatically the story shifts gears and tragedy is just around the corner but it is the facile manner in which Mendes goes about this change that imbues the film with such powerful overtones. It is a stunning climax, as thought-provoking as it is dramatic. And it rounds off a truly candid, no-holds-barred tale of American suburbia with a caustic comment. Kevin Spacey, who first came into the limelight with his The Usual Suspects role,has been growing from strength to strength with each new film (Seven and LA Confidential among others), and in this he is absolutely brilliant and thoroughly deserves the Best Actor Oscar he picked. He is adequately supported by Annette Bening who is a born actress. These two performers give the film the credibility it so richly deserves. The younger artistes like Mena Suvari and Thora Birch also make their presence felt. Allison Janney’s is an unforgettable cameo while Wes Bently and Chris Cooper are, at best, good in parts. But it is the strength of the story and its subtle overtones that makes it such an off-beat and thought-provoking entertainer. Before seeing American Beauty, I wondered why all this hype for the film. Now I agree it deserves the Best Picture Oscar but I still wonder why films like The Sixth Sense and The Insider didn’t pick even a single Oscar. It is this aspect of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that is hard to comprehend. And it is for acts like this that it is often scoffed at. And don’t you think our own M. Night Shyamalan must be chuckling up his sleeve. |
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Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is the head
of the family only in name. He is sick and tired of his
wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) "treating me like I
don’t exist." His daughter Jane (Thora Birch)
is no better. They hardly communicate. And when her
teenage friend Angela (Mena Suvari) finds Lester charming
it is the cause of much embarrassment to Jane. What this
family goes through in terms of life and its vicissitudes
is what American Beauty is all about.