American Beauty ***** (1999, Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Wes Bentley, Mena Suvari, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher) – Classic Movie Review 163

Kevin Spacey won the best actor Oscar for his stupendous performance as Lester Burnham, an American middle-class married man undergoing a middle-aged crisis, in the superb 1999 film American Beauty.

Kevin Spacey won the best actor Oscar for his stupendous performance as Lester Burnham, an American middle-class married man undergoing a middle-aged crisis, in the superb dissection of the American way of life, American Beauty (1999).

Lester seems to be the perfect husband living in a lovely house in a very nice (un-named) suburban neighbourhood. But he’s rotting from the inside. He’s suffering from depression and heading towards a breakdown, hastened by his sudden, all-consuming infatuation for his daughter’s sexy friend Angela (Mena Suvari).

Ambitious and confident to a fault, there’s a brilliant original screenplay by Alan Ball, who originally planned it for the theatre. The searing, scintillating script mixes dramatic realism with social satire and David Lynch-style surrealism to commanding effect. Wow, it’s a great script! And it’s realised with great acting.

If it’s undoubtedly Spacey’s film, Annette Bening is also excellent as Spacey’s bewildered, bored wife, Thora Birch scores as his daughter Jane, Wes Bentley is marvellously creepy as his neighbour’s kid Ricky, a cannabis seller who interests Jane, and Chris Cooper remarkable as Ricky’s dangerously crazy fascist, homophobic dad. Peter Gallagher, Allison Janney, Scott Bakula and Sam Robards are also in the excellent cast.

Sam Mendes’s direction is impeccable and veteran Conrad L Hall’s cinematography a model of clever imagination. It’s such a polished movie, lovingly crafted, and beautifully finished, a perfect thing.

It’s richly satisfying that it got the recognition and audience it deserved. It’s a very rare and remarkable case of an adult movie hitting the box-office jackpot and going on to Oscar triumph, scoring best picture among its five Academy Awards. They were Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), Cinematography, Director, Picture and Original Screenplay. For the record, American Beauty is a rose, a variety that’s known to look lovely but rot easily at the roots.

Steven Spielberg is executive producer, and suggested British theatre director Mendes for his cinema debut.

Alan Ball became creator and executive producer on Six Feet Under and True Blood on TV.

Kevin Spacey previously won the best supporting actor Oscar for The Usual Suspects.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 163

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