The
"soap opera" is a very American genre, so we should not be
surprised to learn that films depicting enigmas faced by ordinary
Americans will captivate many Americans. The Ozzie & Harriet
days of simple problems are gone, so the late 1990s are likely
to confront Americans with more existential dilemmas. We should
have expected Academy awards for the quintessential soap opera
American Beauty for best picture, its director
Sam Mendes, and the male lead Kevin Spacey, since many Academy
voters are young, presumably hung up on exactly the issues
that are dramatized in the film, although the tagline asks
us to "Look closer." Politics pervades the film, since politics
is about power, and most portrayals in the film are of characters
seeking to maximize their power regardless of the impact that
they have on others. Based on the novel of the same title
by Alan Ball, the film is about conflicts that are for the
most part incapable of being resolved, namely, the use of
sexual fantasies to achieve identity in an America middle-class
suburbia where everyone is supposed to be happy because they
have achieved the American dream -- a house, upscale furnishings,
a family with a child, and employment that pays well, though
no loyal dog or even a cuddly cat. Two age cohorts, however,
need to deal with different issues. The teenage generation
wants to grow up and become mature, but the fortiesh adults
are instead trying to recapture their youth, so nobody is
happy. Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) is tired of
the routine at work and at home, where his realtor wife Carolyn
(played by Annette Bening) so completely controls him that
she has him mentally castrated while she conducts an extramarital
love affair with fellow realtor Budy Kane (played by Peter
Gallagher). Their daughter Jane (played by Thora Birch) hates
her parents because they are too busy hating each other, in
part because they do not see themselves as successes at work.
Jane's best friend Angela Hayes (played by Mena Suvari) makes
up X-rated stories about her boyfriends to impress her and
also makes a pass at Lester, urging him to be more sexy by
building muscle. Lester then dreams about her taking a bath
in American Beauty Rose petals, but when he later comes on
to her, she admits that she is a virgin, so he backs off.
Colonel Frank Fitts (played by Chris Cooper) is a Nazi-loving
former marine whose authoritarian discipline at home turns
his wife Barbara (played by Allison Janney) into a zombie
while his son Ricky (played by Wes Bentley) copes by selling
marijuana, making videos, and otherwise appearing to be a
lunatic. Then, all of a sudden, Lester decides to get a life
-- -he quits his job, starts jogging and lifting weights,
and buys the dream car of his youth -- a flashy Firebird.
When he arranges to buy a bagful of grass one night from Ricky,
Frank assumes from a glance at the window next door that his
son is providing sexual service to Lester, so he accuses his
son of being a "faggot." Cleverly, Ricky admits that he gives
$2,000 blowjobs so that his father will force him to move
out, and Ricky then offers to take Jane to start a new life
in New York. The colonel then goes to the garage, where Lester
is lifting barbells and plants an unexpected kiss on his lips,
but Lester rejects the overture, and Frank returns home to
shoot himself. Meanwhile, in his new role at a take-out window
of a fast-food restaurant, a job that he wanted with the least
responsibility, Lester has seen his wife kissing her lover.
Although Lester takes the development with equanimity, Carolyn
is brokenhearted because she was only turned on by the thought
that she was secretly cheating on him, so she takes out her
aggression by buying a gun, practicing her marksmanship at
a gun club, and contemplates shooting her husband. Just like
a soap opera, the only way for a writer to end the series
is to kill the central character. So much for the American
dream and for the American Beauty. MH
I
want to comment on this film
