American beauty

I keep writing about movies that I really like but I promise that my next post would be about a movie that I didn't like ‘a movie that I was expecting to be good but ended up to be a what I could call a hot potato’. But this one is about American beauty.  And yes it is once again a favourite. A film that I like to re-watch every now and then just to remind myself that life is beautiful.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) a middle class family man lives an unhappy suburban life. He decides to change it after falling in love with his daughter’s friend, Angela played by Mena Suvari. Actually he is experiencing a mid-life crisis. He quits his job after blackmailing his boss in order to obtain a much higher compensation of what he actually deserves, change completely his behaviour towards his wife and daughter, starts all of a sudden working out after overhearing Angela implying that she could fell for him if he would improve his physical image, starts smoking pot, trades his family car for a Pontiac Firebird and gets re-employed serving fast food. A critical point in the movie is that Lester starts buying his little pleasures by his neighbour's son, Ricky. A teenager suppressed by his father’s army background and forced to join a military academy but finally ends up in a mental hospital. Ricky through the film develops a relationship with Lester’s daughter. Ricky’s father, Frank suspects that something devious is going on between Lester and his son and after watching Ricky delivering some goodies to Lester he misunderstands and thinks that his son is gay and he has a relationship with their neighbour. Lester tries to seduce Angela but he finds out that she is a virgin and ends up seeing her more like a daughter rather than his deeply desired blond Venus. Her image of a lustful creature falls apart being replaced by what she actually is, just a child. At the end when Lester seems to have found some peace within him sitting on his sofa looking at a family photo he gets shot by Frank and there is where the film shocks you. I was shocked anyway! This scene is beautifully made, showing just a gun approaching Lester from the back.

Through the movie we see the deteriorating relationships between families. Lester and his alienating relationship with his wife (who by the way cheats on him) and his desire for something beyond his reach (the young teenage girl that will make him feel young again) and Frank the neighbour, a retired marine, who tyrannizes his son, has absolutely no sympathy for his wife and he is full of superstitions and fears. It projects the American dream and the way it can fall apart.

The film is beautifully made by Sam Mendes. Mendes in his movies often focuses on problematic, dysfunctional relationships between families or individuals. Generally, I find his way of filming slow but very artistic and elegant. I could say that through his movies we observe slow unfolding mainly of feelings based on broken characters. I will never forget the small part of Michael Shannon on revolutionary road, I forgot Di Caprio and definitely I remember nothing about Winslet but I can’t forget Shannon and what he says to Di Caprio when he founds out their plans ‘plenty of people are on to the emptiness  but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness’. Both movies have things in common. But anyway I definitely prefer American beauty just because I find it more real. It reflects the modern society, the suburban way of living. To be something that you don’t really want to be just because society forces you, get married, have a family, the perfect job and hide under the carpet what you really desire. I believe that Lester is the modern rebellion that decides to say what he wants and tries to reclaim it. And when you think that he made it, that he has gone through the crisis and he finally finds some kind of peace inside him, smiling blissfully as he looks at a family photo….bammmmm a shot in the back of the head. Frank’s bullet is not really a bullet is the invisible ghost that will stop you if you decide to be different. But there is so much to interpret in this movie; the whole film is an allegory I could keep watching and analysing it and every single time to discover a new hidden meaning. The characters have dreams but at the end they all somehow get disappointed, but I guess you should see beauty in every little simple thing in life to be happy.

And I will end up with Lester’s final words as he drifts into his death ‘I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me but it’s hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world, sometimes I feel like I am seeing it all at once and it’s too much my heart fills up like a balloon it’s about to burst and then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life, you have no idea what I am talking about, I am sure, but don’t worry you will someday’.