by Chris Marshall:
When I first saw American
Beauty shortly after it came out, I thought it was really something
special. I thought it had something deep and profound to say about the world.
As I’ve grown older, though, I’ve come to decide that’s not the case. It’s just
a movie about a bunch of awful people doing a bunch of awful things.
Now, that’s not to say that the characters have no redeeming value. Lester Burnham
(Kevin Spacey), effectively the main character, has moments where he’s funny and
makes sense, but I think the movie’s overall message that it’s acceptable to
completely give up on caring about life is problematic. Of course, I admit I
could be misreading the point of the film.
Lester’s wife, played by Annette Bening, is made out to be
totally terrible, and she pretty much is. His daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is
the angsty, misunderstood teenager who finds in her new neighbor (the
gamekeeper from The Hunger Games)
somebody to accept her. He’s wise and world-weary, but he also sells drugs to
earn vast sums of money. And his dad is an evil, homophobic Marine who has Nazi
paraphernalia. It’s all quite dysfunctional.
