Review of American Beauty (1999) by Joj — 07 Jan 2010

I remember this movie coming out when I was younger, but knew I had no hopes of watching a film whose cover depicted little more than a woman's naval. That being said, it is perhaps all of the hype I've seen this film accumulate over the years that caused me to be a litte underwhelmed by it.

Now I'm not saying that the movie doesn't accomplish what it set out to do or all of the things that people tend to praise it for: it was meaningful, touching, unique and had wonderful character development.

I'm actually quite glad I of the fact that I didn't see this as a child, as I would have likely gotten little more from it than a few images of the elusive female breasts. I did, however, find myself continuously picking out little nuisances that really took away from the whole experience.

Of course I'm sure a lot of the things I found to be "wrong" weren't actually shortcomings in the film itself, but more just my own personal disatisfactions. I probably would have given it a 9 had I not had more time to reflect on it as a whole.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't go into this expecting an absolutely perfect movie, instead expect a poignant and often humorous story that has lost a bit of its relevance over the years.