Ameican Beauty Review

I have been fascinated by America. Not because of the prosperity and the supposed quality of life there, but by the fact that it is perhaps the only country in the world, which provides you the opportunity to do whatever you want. But this freedom has its problems too. American Beauty is a look at the dark side of the Great American dream gone sour.

The movie is very simple which is chilling as you realize that it could happen to you as well. Lester Burham is a middle aged American journalist who is about to be fired from his job. He hates his wife Carolyn who is a real estate broker who wants to advance her career at any cost and dominates him all the time. Lester and Carolyn have a teenaged daughter Jane. As a single child, she is spoilt and suffers from the insecurities of the contemporary American teenaged girl like the size of her breasts, how good she looks and the lack of a boyfriend. Both Jane and Carolyn think that Lester is a loser and Lester knows it. In short Lester is going through a mid life crisis.

Things starts to heat up up when a new family moves next door. The Fitts too have a single child Ricky who studies in the same school as Jane. Ricky is a drug peddlar and has bought a lot of expensive stuff that his parents think is saved up from his job as a caterer. Ricky has this quirky habit of capturing everything on his camera. Ricky meets Lester at a party and they become good friends and Ricky starts supplying pot to Lester. In the same party Carolyn meets her competitor Buddy Kane. She is enamored by Kane and an affair begins to brew. Lester quits his job to work at the nearby Smiley's restaurant. To complicate things further, Lester also falls for his daughter's friend Angels Hayes.

What follows shows how frustrated Lester is with his wife's phony, status seeking behavior and with Jane's disrespect for him. He tries to do things that he always wanted to do. He starts working out, buys the car that he always wanted and starts enjoying the freedom.

The movie shows the decay that has set into the American society - the broken marriages, infidelity, the insecure gun toting teenagers, drug addiction, the single minded devotion to career which comes at the cost of the family and the lack of communication between the children and their parents. This communication leads to hatred and mistrust among all and their eventual downfall. A must watch as this is how urban India might be in 10 years' time.

Ratings.

Overall - 8/10
Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham 8/10 - excellent performance. His best scene has to be when he warns his wife in front of their daughter asking her not to interrupt him.
Annette Bening as Carolyn Burnham 8/10 - plays the career minded woman to perfection. Could have been a little more restrained in the crying scenes.
Thora Birch as Jane Burnham, Wes Bentley as Rick Fitts and Mena Suvari as Angela Hayes 7/10 - play the part of insecure teenagers well.