Live Life Team
“American Beauty” is a near perfect film; from Sam Mendes’s debut as a director to Alan Ball’s first screenplay, each of whom won an Oscar. However, the standout performance is Kevin Spacey as Lester Burnham, the disgruntled husband and father of a seemingly normal family. Early in the film, Lester falls in love with his daughter’s best friend, Angela and from the moment he sees her he begins to have strange fantasies about her.
The most interesting fantasy is the first, which takes place during a basketball game. Lester is watching the game and Angela is cheerleading. One moment he sees her dancing, then the stadium is empty and she is dancing to him alone. When she takes her shirt off, red roses fly out of her breasts.
The subsequent fantasies are similar. The choreography is supernatural and dreamlike. Crazy, frantic percussion music plays in the background and a rose appears somewhere, the meaning of which is ambiguous. However it is no doubt tied in with the film’s title, “American Beauty”.
A brief synopsis of the film is that it is about the hypocrisy of the nuclear family. The movie deconstructs every aspect of the traditional family unit. My belief is that the roses are ironic. Throughout literature, they are a symbol of beauty and Lester’s life is supposed to be the American dream, but by his own admission it is actually stupid and pointless.
What I love about Mendes’s direction and Spacey’s acting is how they paint the picture of Lester’s subconscious. On the surface, it’s drab and bleak, but then he fantasises about Angela and comes to life.
