'American Beauty' is complete package

Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning start in 'American Beauty' a film about the last year of man's life.

"American Beauty" is a variety of rose, noted for its large beautiful blooms of a stunning blood-red color. In the film of that name, Lester Burnham's wife grows these roses in their yard along their white picket fence. The flowers are seen throughout their home in clear glass vases that compliment the home's perfect but coldly impersonal decor and the red blooms reoccur throughout the film. The blood-red roses and the suburban perfection of the home are foreshadowing and we soon see that "American Beauty" has many meanings in this film.

The movie opens with voice-over narration by the central character, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who tells us that this is the story of the last year of his life. He is a middle-aged man with a wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and teenage daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and a very empty life. Everyone seems to regard him as a dolt, including his wife and daughter, who are also alienated from each other as well. Two events then occur that bring about changes in all of their lives. At a high school basketball game while watching his cheerleader daughter's routine, he becomes smitten with another cheerleader, a blonde haired beauty and his daughter's friend, Angela (Mena Surari). The other event is the arrival of new neighbors a couple with a teenage son, a strange seeming boy who is always video taping everything around him. These events set the changes in motion, and you may think you know what will happen but in this film, nothing and no one is quite what they seem. Much of the film is funny and some of it is disturbing. The cinematography and imagery create an intensely visual experience. The acting is outstanding, with Annette Bening's performance as the driven but uncomprehending wife and Kevin Spacey's character's transformation from powerlessness to rediscovery of self as standouts.

This film is sure to be in the running for the Oscars and other end-of-year awards, although I don't think this is a film everyone will like. This is not a feel-good movie, sometimes disturbing, but a film to make you think.

by Catherine Marquis-Homeyer