REVIEW: American Beauty (1999)
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Annette Benning, Mena Suvari, Thora Birch
Having been a film I’d heard of but never seen, I decided to give ‘American Beauty’ a watch the other day and let me tell you, it did not disappoint!
If anything it did the complete opposite. It made me think of things I’d never thought deeply about, taught me things I never knew and had visuals that haven’t been used in any other film or piece of media I’ve seen. I’ll let you discover those for yourself though…
I think it’s safe to say the film is well-known and definitely has that 90s feel to it, even though in my eyes it’s still relevant and not dated at all. The plot is about a man called Lester (Kevin Spacey) who is fed up with how things are and has a mid-life crises, falling in love with a girl called Angela (Mena Suvari) who’s the best friend of his teenage daughter, Jane (Thora Birch).
To me, the way Spacey plays his character is brilliant and made me really laugh at times. His sarcasm, wit and humour all have a dark element to the jokes his character makes throughout the film, often about being stuck or feeling lost in the world. His wife Carolyn (Annette Benning) also gives a great performance, playing an over-controlling woman who believes she’s always right. The two fall out about different things and both have their heads turned by other people, giving them less ammunition to be hypocritical towards one another.
My favourite thing about the cinematography in the film is the imagery used throughout, especially the roses that feature in his dreams or whenever he imagines being with Angela. It’s nice because their symbolism shows that he’s obviously completely infatuated with this girl and that she’s some form of escapism for him. This is something we learn he hasn’t had for a long time with his wife. And of course, who doesn’t love the aesthetic look that roses have.
The music in the film is kept very simple and is often instrumental in the parts where it’s featured. A lot of the scenes are actually very quiet in general, with minimal sound and dialogue being used. I think this is a nice touch, however it’s very different to films nowadays in the sense that they’re filled with sound (music or dialogue) pretty much all the time. Personally, I feel that the lack of sound in a scene is nice every once in a while.
I would definitely recommend this film for people to watch, simply because it’s got a lot of hidden deeper meanings than what initially meets the eye. And don’t we all love a deep and meaningful film! Even though ‘American Beauty’ isn’t the best film I’ve ever seen, it is however one that I’ve ticked off my isolation list and it definitely had me thinking about the plot for the rest of the day. And maybe the day after too.
