American Beauty (1999), Directed by Sam Mendes, Written by Alan Ball
4.5/5
***SPOILERS***
American Beauty is an amazing film with so much to enjoy and analyse that you find more upon each viewing and this is definitely a film that you will want to watch again and again. The film has a powerful cast including Kevin Spacey (Pay it Forward) as the depressed Lester going through a "mid-life crisis", Annette Bening (Running with Scissors) as his wife Carolyn who is an emotionally and sexually unavailable and ambitious real estate agent. And then there's his daughter Janey played by Thora Birch (Ghost World). On the surface the film depicts the perfect facade of this nuclear white suburban family. With their perfect house and manicured garden. The garden with the red roses and white picket fence is reminiscent of that in David Lynch's (Mullholand Drive, Lost Highway, Twin Peaks) film Blue Velvet (1986) which also explores the "dangers" of suburban life and the murkiness behind the facade of the "American dream".
Blue Velvet (1986), David Lynch
American Beauty (1999), Sam Mendes
The cinematography is just gorgeous, particularly the way in which colour is used in the film. Red and blues are almost constantly used in contrast to each other, but everything has an almost surreal vibrancy to the suburban areas and the costuming. In contrast Lester's office is dull with a muted colour scheme, almost clinical in it's sparseness. I think the use of blues and reds frequently represent the warring between the clinical facade of control and red that is lustful and passionate. Carolyn (Bening) dons a bright red suit later in the film once she has had an affair and feels powerful purchasing and using a gun, her character seems constantly to be warring at controlling her emotions and she is shown a number of times crying and getting angry at herself for losing control. Carolyn's emotional self mainly occurs away from Lester and when she is with him she is restrained and controlled and admonishes his sexual desires and chastises him like a child when she thinks he will make a mess. Her costuming seems to represent the mantra that she repeats throughout the film "I must portray an image of success" that her cool blue dresses and beige clothing hide the maroon red slip and later as her emotions show her wardrobe reflects this.
Lester in the office
Carolyn cleaning the house for sale in her red slip
Ricky looking at Jane through the window
Next door to the Burnham's is a gay couple Jim and Jim (Scott Bakula and Sam Robards) and their dog, they are the modern idea of the family who now have been incorporated into the American dream. In stark contrast are Ricky and his family who move in who are much more like the 1950s traditional family. Ricky's father Col. Frank Fitts (Chris Cooper) is in the Army and is overly concerned about discipline and rules and is violent towards Ricky and presumably his wife Barbara (Allison Janney) although that is only inferred from her almost catatonic depressed-like state. She seems so out of it perhaps from constant oppression by her husband and she cannot even react to her son being beaten just saying "Wear a rain coat." This is a prime example of how each character in this film cannot deal with the reality of something in their lives. While Barbara cannot face her husband's violence and perhaps his homosexuality, Frank cannot face his own homosexuality. Chris Cooper plays Frank beautifully especially in the car scene where he comments about gay people and Ricky makes a comment about them making him sick. While Frank seems placated, he is almost concerned as well displayed all just from his expression. More and more it seems that while it is evident that Ricky is not gay and is dating Jane, Frank takes out his own growing homosexual desire on Ricky.
Chris Cooper as Frank listening to Ricky talk about homosexuality
The soundtrack is also great, the score is beautiful and complements the slow moving and repetitive shots and is contrasted by great use of other songs which frequently mirror the themes. For example Lester is listening and singing along to "American Woman" which is about leaving a woman or emancipation from women in general which is precisely what Lester does throughout the film. It would be interesting to do an in depth analysis of the gender roles in this film in particular the depiction of women. This is most prominent in Lester's relationship or rather failed relationship with Carolyn and he rebels more and more like a teenager and refers to her as "Uh oh, Mom's here" and also when "caught" smoking pot with Ricky he mimics a childlike voice to say "I think I'm in trouble". This mirrors the lyrics in "American Woman" "American woman, stay away from me, American woman, mama let me be...". Carolyn represents the idea of woman as mother who is the oppressor of freedom and sexual desire whereas Angela represents a fantasy of the sexual woman, this is the classic "Madonna whore complex" where the notion of a woman as both sexual and a caring mother cannot be incorporated and instead diverges.
Jane and Ricky watch the plastic bag dancing video
Another interesting use of imagery is Ricky's fascination with videoing everything. There are frequent shots of both the tv screen, the video camera and the object of the recording all in a single frame. Voyeurism is one aspect of this, but also it represents a major theme of the film which is beauty in the mundane and ordinary. The most obvious example of this is where Ricky shows Jane his favourite video of the plastic bag "dancing" in the wind and as the camera zooms in closer slowly on to the back of Jane and Ricky's head toward the tv screen there is a kind of hypnotic feel and tension when complimented with the score. This fascination with imagery of images themselves is also seen in the frequent use of mirrors and reflections. This plays into the notion of the character's conflicts with themselves and the idea that there is a superficiality to appearance throughout the film that begins to crumble.
Ricky looking in the mirror
Usually I dislike the use of voice over in films as it can be overly and unnecessarily used, but in this case it had a kind of poetic effect and mostly complimented the plot and visuals. The exception to this is some of the lines of Lester's narration at the close of the film which are over the top.
There is so much to discuss and analyse in this film I cannot discuss everything and can only touch upon the aspects that I find most interesting. Other interesting things like the focus on materialism and consumerism in the search for happiness and the notion of perpetual adolescence in today's society and the lack of parental discipline etc. Personally for me this film is ultimately about the facade of the pursuit of the American dream and that by attempting to create this perfection it is instead stifling and unsatisfying. That what ultimately matters are people and family. That beauty is subjective and can be found in the mundane and simplistic if you look for it and that there is beauty even in what seems ugly.
Lester looking at family photo
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