"American Beauty" is a comedy because we laugh at the absurdity of the hero's problems. And a tragedy because we can identify with his failure--not the specific details, but the general outline. The movie is about a man who fears growing older, losing the hope of true love and not being respected.
The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. American Beauty reminds us that, like Lester, we really have no idea what we really want. Another profound element of American Beauty is in the tag line: look closer.
An individual's behavior is not independent of his environment. The characters strive to portray themselves as the All. American Beauty is America with white fences, red roses in the garden. Blue windows and Red door making a dark mirror onto America and his citizens. What do all these movies have in common? The beauty in American culture is in its dysfunctionality.
Trailer American Beauty
That's the message in American Beauty , one of the more compelling The movie is about Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), who sees no point to his existence: he is in a cold and frigid relationship with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening); he barely. This is the story of an American tragedy, not beauty. Sick logic—that, sadly, isn't even surprising in American Beauty.
How anyone can have thought that AB, a fine but limited work dumbed down American Beauty is a great movie and then some. Not only does this movie make you laugh, cry and feel emotionally drained, it makes you. You know you're in the hands of a true filmmaker when you feel invited, at every turn, to share his sense of entrancement. I got that feeling in just about every frame of American Beauty.