American Beauty : Where?

The movie did not work for me at all, it was crass. I felt it was hyped because of the director-actor combination, but lacked substance. The acting was brilliant, no two ways about it. But what I hated was that, there was not a single sane character in the movie. I dont enjoy a movie thats filled with characters/caricatures but lack depth.

You have Kevin Spacey who is suffering from inferiority complex and the only thing he looks forward to is his daughter’s friend, that's a sick mind where sex becomes a goal to work for; not family, not wife or children but an object of lust tat too someone who is 20 years younger; I can still accept that becasue its not a moral issue. Meena Suvari, who actually reciprocates Spacey’s lust; does she have a mind of her own or what? Annette Bening is shallow too; she cheats on her hubby by sleeping arnd instead of confronting the truth, and continues to live selfishly in a bad marriage. Thora Birch who is low on confidence and the only thing that would cheer her up is a boob-job; and the sudden interest shown by her nerdy neighbour actually turns her on because no one has ever seen her in amorous way.

The drug peddler who tries to find beauty of life in shooting flying polythene bags and death, how demented. And his army-burdened dad who suspects that his son is gay.

While i do agree that America has lots of such families with such characters, but I would definitely not believe that all these characters would be found in the same family. Yes, you can find these characters but in different families, you dont bring in all fuckin nerdy characters in the same house. Come on .. gimme room to breathe. This is a potboiler situation where you bring in all the wacks/freaks you can think of and put them in the same frame and call it ‘american beauty’