American Beauty

cast: kevin spacey, annette bening,thora birch, wes bentley, mena suvari director: sam mendes producers: bruce cohen, dan jinks writer: alan ball rating: ***** synopsis 'american beauty' - academy award winner 2000, under the best film, best actor, and best director categories, is a satirical filming of decadent life in suburban america. a middle-aged lester burnham (kevin spacey) finds himself trying to cope with the trauma of a mid-life crisis and life is a bag of soggy popcorn. a job with an advertising company that's as exciting as flat beer, a non-existent sex life with wife carolyn (annette bening), and an apathetic relationship with daughter jane (thora birch) in high school, who looks upon her 'weird' parents as warring chickens in a bird cage, completes the degraded picture. but the fizz suddenly spurts upward when lester finds himself, hopelessly infatuated by angela (mena suvari), jane's luscious, all-american cheerleader and "wannabe-model" girl friend. the crush on angela wanes away a hitherto joyless existence as mr. burnham swings into action, pumping iron which, by doing so, ejects not just the flab, but also the lethargy characteristic of men at that age. carolyn, who can't come to terms with her sexual frigidity when with lester, finds the excitement re-kindled when in bed with her rival real estate agent. a series of twisted events follows as each character finds itself wound up to the other like that inevitable re-coiling of a spring, leading right down to the tension-building before the recoil. lester teams up with ricky fitts (wes bentley), his new twenty-year old neighbor who smokes pot, is a video camera-lugging voyeur and in love with jane. mr. burnham himself gets drawn in by the recollected powers of youth and the blithe of its spirit as he smokes cannabis with ricky, listens to sixties rock (floyd rediscovered) and finds himself a new 'teenage' job, selling hamburgers. the pumping of iron continues until lester manages to draw the attention of angela; who, he eventually realises, is but a kid coming to terms with the complexities of adolescence. quiet like jane and just as vulnerable. but, by then, one figures, it is too late. analysis director sam mendes and writer alan ball, together probe life in suburban america, that's struggling to ward off a corrosion of its core value systems. 'american beauty' isn't just about a mixed-up adolescent telling her mom off, by declining to be part of a 'kodak moment' during a conversation on how they could better their relationship. neither is it about a wife worrying more about the beer spilt on her expensive couch, instead of savoring that amorous moment when her husband wants to make love to her on it; nor is it just about a father's fantasy that thrives on the rose petals flowing out of the nude body of his daughter's friend. the movie is america's tribute to vanity and their unknowingobsession with the superficial. the cosmetic-plus-designer label-attitude, the fear of the 'ordinary' packaged with the desperate need to be 'somebody', are nuances very accurately tapped by director mendes. also, ball's cleverly written lines, hold an unswerving grip on complexes trapped within the contrived image, that possibly every american tries unfailingly hard to live with and up to. (to be successful you have to project a successful image, even if you aren't). equally impressive is the film's cinematography. (a serene shot of an uncaring, lazy, plastic bag flying around amidst fallen autumn leaves, driving home the point of an aimlessness in its existence... what voyeur ricky describes as the bag's internal energy that pushes it to thrive amidst nothing.) the film, in all probability, beat rival 'sixth sense' at the oscar game on account of a most outstanding display of histrionics by its lead actors kevin spacey, annette bening, thora birch, wes bentley and the very alluring mena suvari as the wide-eyed, blond lolita, 'angela'. a must watch film on america, by america. undoubtedly, this one's a beauty.