Review of American Beauty (1999) by Kerby H — 13 Nov 2013

American Beauty is my favorite movie. Never has their been a more in-depth character development, and this movie has 6 fantastic characters. The main character is Lester Burnham who shows a sign of desperation when he starts to realize that his life is falling apart.

He has everything where it should be; a good job, a loving wife ,and a daughter, but everything is not what it appears to be. On the surface, he is a success, but deep down, everything is a failure. He hates his dead-end job because of his new boss that thinks he can realign the company despite his lack of experience.

His wife hasn't touched him in years and she is far too invested in her career, rather than her home life. His daughter simply hates everything that life has to offer, just because she can't see the joy and beauty that exists all around us.

When Lester is finally courageous enough to say that something is wrong, a new challenge enters his life. He tries to show fake emotions for his daughter so that she will at least feel proud, but he is distracted by a new feeling entering his life that he hasn't experienced is a long period of time: lust.

He notices that his daughter Jane has an attractive cheerleader friend named Angela who he thinks is the most beautiful person in the world. So much so that whenever he is near her he enters a daze where she is the only thing that exists to him.

No matter how hard he tries to get that image out of his mind, he can't because he needs something to desire in his abysmal life. All the while, his wife Caroline has completely given up on her seemingly failed marriage and drags Lester around just for show.

She knows that getting divorced will ultimately crush Jane and probably negatively affect her professional status so she continues to mask herself in lies just so she can succeed. Caroline isn't very successful and doesn't seem like she has the ability to improve herself so she tries to attain any possible way to get ahead.

One of these ways is to establish a professional relationship with real estate-guru Buddy Kane, who, despite his professionalism, lacks motivation. When they meet, they realize each other's problems and that the least they could do is try to eliminate their stress.

Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to cheat on their respective spouses, which Buddy hardly realizes is a problem. Caroline feels guilty at first, but when she sees how loathsome Lester is, she continues without hesitation.

Meanwhile, Jane has one friend who she doesn't enjoy being around, though she acts like she does so that she can seem the least bit popular. Although she never shows it, she wants people to notice her but I don't think she even realizes that.

That all become a reality when her creepy next door neighbor, Ricky Fitts, starts recording everything she does. At first she is disgusted and feels violated, yet she wants to know why he is recording her rather than wanting him to stop.

She probably is unsure why he is recording her because she is so self-loathing that she acts rashly and calls Ricky a creep. However, this doesn't phase Ricky. He has seen his fair share of remorse and disdain and is constantly recording things because he sees the beauty in life itself.

In several scenes, the things that Ricky is recording do not seem beautiful by any means, like the dying woman and the dead animal, but he sees beauty in absolutely everything. Jane now realizes that she wants to be with Ricky because he sees the beauty in the ugly exterior that she presents.

In actuality, she is an ugly person, but it takes only a camera for her to realize that she is just as beautiful as Angela is on the outside. As for Angela, she only cares what people think of her, which is the exact opposite of Ricky.

Angela tries to boast herself at all times just so that she meets everybody's approval, and it actually hurts her reputation. She is constantly talking about the men she has slept with, and how she enjoys the feelings of visible lust that she thinks all men have of her.

While all of these feelings are being discovered, Lester is discovering that he has had it with the life he has lived for so long, and wants to inhibit a lifestyle where he decides what to do. He's tired of Caroline bossing him around and he hates that Jane doesn't respect him, so he takes a firm stance and changes the layout of his life.

He starts smoking weed, he stops working, and he starts making decisions that the old Lester wouldn't have. Many of his new motives are side affects of his feelings for Angela, like trying to work out more so that he can feel attractive.

While he experiences his mid-life crisis, he meets Ricky Fitts and they have an immediate connection; who cares what the world thinks, they can accept me for who I am an appreciate what I have to offer! Lester and Ricky develop this special bond which leads to the confusion of Ricky's father, Colonel Fitts.

Because of Ricky's troubled past (drug addiction, fighting at school, insane asylums), Colonel Fitts is always suspicious of Ricky's behavior and expects the worst of any possible situation. One of these suspicions is that Ricky might be gay and is having a relationship with Lester.

Colonel Fitts is always commandeering his rules and making sure that Ricky grows up to be a mature, disciplined man, but he also shows signs of homophobia. At this point in the movie, Ricky is having a secret relationship, but it is not with Lester, yet actually his depressed daughter, Jane.

They have a perfect connection because Ricky appreciates the beauty in ugly things, and Jane wants people to see that she is a special person. Lester is doing all of the things he has always wanted to do, like buy the car of his dreams, quit his job and he evens applies for a job at a burger restaurant to make money while exhibiting the least possible motivation or effort.

However, while working at the drive-thru in the restaurant, he catches Buddy with Caroline and proclaims a declaration of independence from her tyranny. She is no longer aloud to destroy his life, and he will continue to do as he please.

When confronted about his wife's affair, he says that he doesn't mind her sleeping around as long as it doesn't affect him, because it keeps her in a better mood and satisfies her sexual needs that prevent her from complete and total insanity.

In the beginning of the movie, Lester says that he will die in less than a year, and the audience tends to forget that until he reminds him of his last day on Earth. The entire time, you try to think of reasons that someone would kill him, and every character seems like they have some motive.

Jane is embarrassed of her dad's obvious feelings for Angela and wants to live a normal life without her parents' constant bickering. Because of this, Ricky asks Jane if she wants him to kill her dad for her, and she says yes, jokingly, but Ricky doesn't seem like he understands the sarcasm in her response.

Angela is told by Jane that she is ordinary, which is the biggest insult to her because she has spent her entire life trying to be extraordinarily pretty and mature. Because of this, her whole life seems to have an epiphany that she isn't as beautiful as she thought and that she isn't worth anyone's approval.

After this revelation, it could be a possibility that she would kill the person who wanted her most, Lester Burnham. With all of this going on at once, we forget about the person who wants to kill Lester the most, his wife Caroline.

Her whole life seems ideal with only a minor speed bump standing in her way, and you can feel the intensity in her situation as she she in the car, wielding a gun, listening to motivational tapes about how to seize what you've always wanted.

After Jane and Angela have a big dispute over her 'plainness', Jane tearfully talks to Lester about whether or not she is ordinary. Of course he tell hers what she wants to hear, and she gives him the opportunity to have sex with her, which is what he has always wanted and she has secretly wanted all along.

Just before he is about to, she tells him that she is a virgin and that he would be her first time, which comes as a shock to Lester because she gives off a confident and sexual vibe. This shows that no matter how beautiful some one can be on the outside, that does not translate to their beauty on the inside, which Ricky proved to be nonexistent in Angela.

Lester then puts her clothes back on and rejects her offer so that he does not corrupt her innocence and start a chain of bad choices for Angela. Slightly before this all occurs, Ricky's dad sees Ricky wrapping a blunt for Lester, but due to the angle from which he is watching them, it looks like Ricky is giving Lester a blowjob, which is horrifying to Colonel Fitts.

The fear that Ricky will grow up to be gay is such a horrible thought to him that his entire life has been flipped upside-down. He starts crying uncontrollably, showing his weaker side, and walks over to the Burnham house to confront Lester.

When he walks in, he is covered in rain and tears and simply wants an answer from Lester. He asks about Caroline and his unfolding relationship, and is astounded that Lester could care so little for someone that he used to love so much.

To the extreme surprise of nearly everyone, Colonel Fitts kisses Lester and Lester immediately retreats from the kiss and is shocked about what just happened. He tells Colonel Fitts that he isn't into that sort of thing, which makes him completely and utterly confused and heartbroken.

This shows the reason for his homophobia, why he didn't want Ricky to be gay, and why he was so strict before. Now, after all of these things happen nearly at once, you see Lester take one last look at a picture of his family, and then a gunshot is heard.

Then, you see multiple shots of the other characters reacting to the heard gunshot, which shows that they were not the killer. It was not Jane, Ricky, Angela, or even Caroline; it was Colonel Fitts. This surprising ending leads to a wonderfully insightful final monologue, and the viewer is left in utter disbelief of the beauty they just saw.