American Beauty

Wow. This twisted romance/murder-mystery was a breath of fresh air. It was so up close and personal dissecting the secret lives of the average American. Not as the ephamistic front world that usually appears on the big and little screen. This is straight forward. showing the lives of an ordinary girl who wants to be extra-ordinary, a man who has marital problems and hates his job, a boy who deals drugs and is abused by his up tight marine father who happens to be gay, a woman who is above her husband and has affairs with powerful men, and a girl who distances herself from her parents because she feels like they're distancing themselves from her.

American Beauty was so powerful and graphic, I felt guilty at how personal into their lives I got. I kept looking around, red in the face, wondering if I was the only one who felt intrusive. It has an after taste like that of Butterfly Effect with Ashton Kutcher. So many subplots lead to the eventual death of the main character Lester Burnham. The sexually frustrated man who is living with his wife but seperated. The man who is done with being pushed around by his controlling wife and his employers. The married man who's highlight each day is wacking off in the shower. The man who is depressed and downtrodden. By the end there were a total of five suspects who might have wanted to kill him. His supervisor who he blackmailed into a $60,000 severance package, his wife who he caught cheating on him, his drug dealer who his daughter jokingly hired to kill him, and his neighbour who thought he was hiring his son as a prostitute.

The entire film was phenomenal beginning to end. With a thickening plot, dark secrets revealed, and of course the mystery. I believe this revealed the ugly truth, it showed the beauty of America. Five stars and two thumbs up.