Provoked by forbidden passions, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) decides to make a few changes in his rut of a life
In 1999, three films all sharing a similar principle - The Matrix, Fight Club and American Beauty - literally changed people's perception of the world.
American Beauty"s Lester Burnham hates his mundane employment and his empty marriage. But meeting his new neighbour Ricky, Colonel Fitts' drug-dealing son, changed his life. He"s about to quit his job and break free from his materialistic, consumer-driven lifestyle.
As Fight Club's Tyler Durden would put it, "It's only after we've lost everything, that we're free to do anything."
So Lester listens to Pink Floyd, pumps iron and flips burgers - responsibility just isn't his bag, baby. He buys a 1970 Pontiac Firebird to piss off his sexless wife and enjoys lustful fantasies about Angela - his teenage daughter's temptress of a best friend. Lester has become the uninhibited, gregarious, fearless guy that all men want to be. He is Tyler Durden. He is Neo. And he loves it. At least until, in a fit of homophobic rage, Colonel Fitts kills him.
American Beauty is in every way an expertly crafted film. Conrad Hall"s exquisite cinematography and Thomas Newman"s unforgettable score is the perfect backdrop for Alan Ball's deliciously barbed script that"s brought to life by the bravura performances of Spacey, Bening and Cooper. Whilst Sam Mendes' polished and controlled direction, theatrical expertise and well judged pacing allow us time to get to know and understand Ball's complex characters.
American Beauty is a brutally effective and entirely absorbing piece of filmmaking.
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