Look closer. The chilling tag-line of multi award winning American Beauty has great relatability, from the lives of all of the characters to the hidden beauty on showcase throughout the film. It cannot simply be filed into one genre, instead being a drama, comedy, tragedy and more. Director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Alan Ball fine-tuned the film, resulting in a triumph of writing, acting and directing.
The movie follows the last few months of everyman Lester Burnham’s (played by the seemingly ideal Kevin Spacey) life, while he makes a dramatic change from being left high and dry from his job, family and social life, to a life mirroring his adolescence. At the very beginning, we learn that he dies later in the year, and possibly by his next door neighbour’s son, Ricky Fitts (Wes Bently). As the audience learns more of Lester’s pathetic life in a somewhat prison, his wife Carolyn (Annette Benning) drags him to his daughter’s cheerleading performance where he meets her friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and is instantly attracted to her.
The following is about Lester changing his previous ways to a more relaxed and laid back man before the audience is shown his death. To begin with, the acting performance of all characters is highly commended for, especially with the likes of multi award winning Kevin Spacey. His comedic perspective on his pathetic self is highly amusing, and he displays the main theme of happiness exceptionally well. He is also extremely successful in projecting Lester to the relatable character he is, as well as being as socially unacceptable as he is.
Spacey achieves the subtle humour shown in the film well, such as during the scene when Spacey is explaining to his wife that he lost his job; “It’s not like whoops, where’d my job go? I quit! ” His body language and facial expressions have a subliminal impact throughout the movie, grabbing the audience’s attention. Spacey draws you in and shows through nothing but his excellent acting ability that despite all of life’s miseries and problems, there is hope for happiness and thus beauty. There is certainly no surprise Spacey won the “Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role” for this stellar performance.
Furthermore, there are many powerful motifs that help draw the audience in and symbolise the freedom and beauty that is constantly being shown. The references to cages and bars throughout works perfectly to softly build up character development, as it shows the imprisonment felt by the characters ‘trapped in them. A sublime shot with this is when Spacey returns to the real estate function after smoking pot with Bently, and it shows him walking back into the cages and bars. This shows that after Spacey’s first encounter with Bently, he has to return to his overly controlled lifestyle.
Another motif is the roses shown throughout the movie. They help identify the artificial American beauty (yes, that was on purpose) such as the rose petals on Suvari and Benning’s perfect yet scentless roses. This shows the passion and lust of Spacey towards Suvari, as well as how Benning plays God with the roses-similarly to how she controls the image of her failed work and home lives. These motifs work extraordinarily well to show the hidden themes that enhance the viewing experience, and to truly appreciate how great the film is.
However, there were some motifs identified that seemed a bit too farfetched in my opinion, such as the one about reoccurring photographs. The only memorable photo seen is the one towards the end of the Burnham family, before Spacey is killed. The screenwriting from Alan Ball is exceptional, and provided him with a memorable big-screen debut. The entire aspect of the films plot is extremely believable and also relatable. Director Sam Mendes also performed well on his debut, bringing very elaborate techniques and helped emphasise Ball’s main ideas.
They were able to capture the themes through many effective film techniques, such as the motifs. What is universally liked about Ball in this film is his inspiration to write the script, which was him watching a plastic bag flying through the wind at the World Trade Centre, an extremely memorable event in the film as one of Ricky’s videos of beauty. Despite this ironic and iconic feature, Ball and Mendes worked together to produce this multi award winning film, especially being commended for how relatable the plot and life of Spacey.
This is achieved in cooperation with Spacey’s remarkable acting performance to showing a typical American guy who hates his job and has no other interests outside of work, but turns into an awe-inspiring sociopath. However, the script was hard to believe at one time, and that was when Jane Burnham (Thora Birch) had complete acceptance to completely leave her old life behind and live in New York with Bently. But yet this is only a small flaw in an otherwise great script. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this great film that has stood the test of time for over 16 years.
The brilliance from Mendes, Ball and many of the actors/actresses worked perfectly together in harmony. I would recommend to anyone 16 or older (rating R16) and likes a mix of drama, comedy and tragedy. The central themes of happiness, freedom and beauty are shown immaculately, which enables the audience to really relate to the film and see themselves in some of the characters. To realise that there is always happiness, freedom and beauty in the world. If they look closer.