American Beauty (film)

American Beauty is a 1999 comedy/drama film that explores themes of romantic and paternal love, freedom, sexuality, beauty, self-liberation, existentialism, the search for happiness, and family against the backdrop of modern American suburbia. The film was the feature film debuts for writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes and starred Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening; all four were nominated for Oscars. In 2000 it won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Tagline: - look closer

Cast

Kevin Spacey - Lester Burnham

Annette Bening - Carolyn Burnham

Thora Birch - Jane Burnham

Wes Bentley - Ricky Fitts

Mena Suvari - Angela Hayes

Chris Cooper - Col. Frank Fitts, USMC

Peter Gallagher - Buddy Kane

Allison Janney - Barbara Fitts

Scott Bakula - Jim Olmeyer
Sam Robards - Jim Berkley

Barry Del Sherman - Brad Dupree

Ara Celi - Sale House Woman #1

John Cho - Sale House Man #1
Fort Atkinson - Sale House Man #2
Sue Casey - Sale House Woman #2

Awards
The movie dominated the 2000 Oscars, with a total of eight nominations and five wins. It also had another 82 wins and 63 nominations at numerous other award ceremonies.

Wins
Academy Award for Best Picture (Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks)
Academy Award for Best Actor (Kevin Spacey)
Academy Award for Directing (Sam Mendes)
Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay (Alan Ball)
Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Conrad L. Hall)
American Comedy Awards, USA: American Comedy Award for Funniest Actress in a Motion Picture (Leading Role)
American Society of Cinematographers, USA: ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases
Australian Film Institute: Best Foreign Film Award
BAFTA for Best Film (Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks)
BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Kevin Spacey)
BAFTA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Annette Bening)
BAFTA Award for Best Editing (Tariq Anwar), (Christopher Greenbury)
BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall)
BAFTA Award for Best Music (Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music) (Thomas Newman)
BMI Film & TV Awards: BMI Film Music Award
Bodil Awards: Bodil for Best American Film (Bedste amerikanske film)
Bogey Awards, Germany: Bogey Award
British Society of Cinematographers: Best Cinematography Award
Directors Guild of America: Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures (Sam Mendes)
Grammy Award: Best Score Soundtrack Album (Thomas Newman)
Screen Actors Guild Award: Best Actor (Kevin Spacey)
Screen Actors Guild Award: Best Actress (Annette Bening)
Screen Actors Guild Award: Best Ensemble (Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher)

Plot

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a 42-year-old man living in the suburbs, and working a boring job in advertising. His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is an ambitious realtor; his rebellious and confused daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is an average teenager, unhappy with her physical appearance and harboring resentment for her father because of the lack of attention he shows her.

Dissatisfied with his nondescript life and sexually frustrated by his wife, Lester finds motivation for transforming himself after meeting Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), Jane's best friend and classmate. Angela, a beautiful, confident, and supposedly promiscuous cheerleader who aspires to be a model, captivates Lester the moment he sees her perform a school dance routine, and he develops an obvious crush on her, much to Jane's embarrassment. Angela, however, finds Lester "sweet" and later comments to Jane that if he were more muscular, she would have sex with him, which Lester overhears. He starts an intensive workout regimen.

Meanwhile, Colonel Frank Fitts, USMC (Chris Cooper), his emotionally-detached wife Barbara (Allison Janney), and their introspective, drug-dealing son Ricky (Wes Bentley) move next door to the Burnhams. Frank is militaristic, conservative, and openly anti-gay. Jane begins to notice Ricky videotaping her through her bedroom window, which secretly flatters her.

Carolyn begins an extramarital affair with rival realtor Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher), whom she has admired for some time, and at his recommendation decides to begin relieving her stress at a shooting range.

Meanwhile, confronted with a newly-installed (and much younger) department boss looking for a reason to get rid of him, rather than desperately trying to save his job, Lester quits instead, revealing his disgust and contempt and successfully blackmailing his boss for an enormous severance package.

Remembering how much he enjoyed his summer job as a teenager, he begins work anew at a fast food restaurant. Jane and Ricky bond over camcorder footage of a plastic bag "dancing" in the wind, which Ricky considers the most beautiful thing he has ever recorded. Ricky also bonds with Lester over recollections of the B-movies Re-Animator and Beastmaster. Lester also begins to purchase $2000 per 1/8th oz G-13 marijuana from Ricky.

Some time later, Lester catches his wife with her lover at the drive-through window of the fast food restaurant where he is employed. Despite Lester's calm reaction, Carolyn's lover breaks off their liaison, fearing financial complications in his own divorce and scandal to his reputation. She angrily drives home with her gun, seemingly with the intention of confronting her husband, believing him to have ruined her life. Lester pages Ricky for marijuana, raising the suspicions of Col. Fitts that the two are involved in a gay liaison. He observes Ricky rolling a joint for Lester while he lounges on a couch, but due to his perspective he believes that he has observed his son performing fellatio. Convinced that his son is gay, he confronts Ricky and threatens to throw him out of the house. Realizing that this will free him from his family, Ricky plays in to his father's mistaken impression, claiming that he is a prostitute.

Ricky goes next door to Jane and asks her if she will travel to live in New York with him. Jane not only agrees, but offers to supply money that she has been saving for a breast augmentation, though Ricky is unconcerned with money as his marijuana sales provide him a steady source of income and a cache of $40,000. Angela, who is visiting Jane's house, accuses both of being "freaks," to which Ricky retorts that she is ugly, ordinary, boring, and that she knows it. Angela is devastated, the implication being that Ricky has exposed her deepest fear; that she suspects she is indeed ordinary, a fate she considers unbearable. At the same time, Lester is quietly approached in his garage while working out by a distraught Col. Fitts, who has been out in the rain. Lester attempts to comfort Col. Fitts who kisses him, believing him to be gay based on what he had seen earlier. Lester rejects this advance calmly as a misunderstanding, and Fitts leaves, humiliated.

Returning to his family room, Lester finds a vulnerable Angela. He admits his attraction to her, and that he has been working out. He begins to undress her, but she admits that she is a virgin. He cannot bring himself to take her virginity. Conversing with Angela in the kitchen, Lester realizes that he is truly happy. As Angela heads to the bathroom, Lester contemplates over an old photo of his smiling family - unaware that a gun is now held to the back of his head.

The movie ends with Lester's description of his life flashing before his eyes, interspersed with scenes of his family and others at the moment of the gunshot. Ricky and Jane react to the gunshot from the upstairs bedroom, Angela from a bathroom, Carolyn from outside the front door (where she had been approaching the house with her own gun to confront her husband). As Carolyn disposes of her gun and weeps for Lester, Col. Fitts is seen back in his own house removing latex gloves and a blood soaked shirt.

Lester narrates over the closing images, recalling the things he loved about his life and family, and reflects on the overwhelming beauty in the world. He assures the viewers that, even though they probably do not understand what he is talking about now, they will someday, at the end of their own lives.

Action and Adventure -

Animation - Comedy - Crime - Documentary -
Family - Foreign Language - Historical - Horror - Musical - Political