American Beauty

Before this class, I had heard so much about American Beauty. The thing about it is that until I actually saw the film, I had absolutely no clue about the actual plot or characters, just that there was something about roses. Turns out, I thought this film was really good. Kevin Spacey's portrayal of a man who narrates the last year of hisl ife with a neurotic real estate wife, daughter who hates him, a dead-end job, and seemingly nowhere to go. Rich, the new neighbor, creepily videotapes Thora Birch's character's every move. THere's something "beautiful" in everything that she does. THat relationship freaks me out initially, but there was something in their awkwardness that complimented the bizarreness of their relationship and almost forced the viewer to enjoy their work. The characterization of all of the characters, from the mother to the ex-Marine father (Rich's), complimented and contrasted with Spacey's character to create an opportunity for Spacey's character to split farther away from the unlikeable traits of the rest of the characters.
I think that the most powerful portrayal of any character in the film wasn't Spacey's with his newfound love of life and freespiritedness, but the Marine's revelation when he assumes the relationship between Spacey's character and Rich's. All of his hatred for gay people was really directed toward himself, and that moment was really a pivotal point in the film for all of the characters, and i loved the power in that. Next to the marine's character, Mena Suvari's role as the self-proclaimed slutty yet prude friend showed to be equally as twisted and away from teh truth.