American Beauty

American Beauty. 1999 Dreamworks Pictures.
Starring: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Scott Bakula, Sam Robards
Director: Sam Mendes
Available from Amazon.

Sam Mendes' directorial debut netted five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role for Kevin Spacey, and Mendes won the award for Best Director. Terry Gilliam declined to direct this movie, which meant that if he had accepted, it would've been a very difficult filmmaking process that went horribly overbudget.

The movie opens with narration from Lester Burnham (Spacey), who informs us that in less than a year, he will be dead, but he doesn't know that yet, and in a way, he's already dead. Burnham is a 42-year-old advertising executive and can't find any way to advance even higher. His wife Carolyn (Bening) is an ambitious real estate broker who hypes herself up so much that she is absolutely devastated when she can't close the deal. Their daughter is Jane (Birch), 16 years old, and she abhors her parents. Jane also has self-esteem issues, and is saving money for breast augmentation. The Burnhams' new neighbors are USMC Colonel Frank Fitts (Cooper), his distant wife Barbara (Janney), and their teenage son Ricky (Bentley), an aspiring filmmaker who films everything around him. Frank controls Ricky with a strict lifestyle, and testing him for drug use. His biggest fear may be that his only son might be gay, which isn't the case. We also learn that Frank is severely homophobic, which is just a cover for his deepest, darkest secret.

After watching a high school basketball game that Jane is cheerleading at, Lester develops a deep infatuation with Jane's friend and classmate Angela Hayes (Suvari). His fantasies about Angela portray her as sexually aggressive among thousands of red rose petals. Meanwhile, Ricky films Jane in her bedroom window one evening; she catches him and exposes herself through the window. Eventually, they begin a romantic relationship, bonding over Ricky's favorite image that he ever filmed: a plastic bag that is blown by the wind in front of a wall. Carolyn starts having an affair with a business rival, Buddy Kane (Gallagher). Lester's mid-life crisis continues: he quits his job before being laid off, and takes a low-pressure job at a fast food joint. He trades in his car for a '70 Pontiac Firebird and starts working out so he can "look good naked". Ricky soon starts selling Lester marijuana, and Lester still flirts with Angela whenever she visits Jane.

Frank becomes suspicious of Ricky's friendship with Lester, and after he finds videotapes of Lester working out, he beats his son, and Ricky leaves, asking Jane to flee with him to New York. Ricky also dismisses Angela as "ordinary", deflating her. Frank confronts Lester, and attempts to kiss him. Lester blows him off, and finds a distraught Angela, who asks him if she's beautiful. She starts to seduce Lester, but he stops her, and they instead bond over their shared personal frustration.

At the end, Lester is shot to death, but it's unclear who shot him. Carolyn was seen loading a gun and driving home (her affair with Kane ended after Lester's indifferent reaction to the news), and Frank returns home covered in blood and finds a gun missing from his collection. Ricky and Jane left the house after finding Lester dead in the kitchen. From the afterlife, Lester's final words suggest that he is happy, and it's difficult to be angry with so much beauty in the world.

Highly, highly recommended movie.