Customer Reviews
American Reality 
2008-08-12
This is a great, satirical, passionate, sensual, and disturbing movie. You will love the character development and find yourself on the side of different characters as time goes on. The characters are so diverse and dissimilar from one another that it is realistic, in that they are not cookie-cutters of one another. Complexity of characters is what really makes this movie.
Kevin Spacey and Annette Benning give performances that are so convincing that you feel like you've just witnessed the true American family; a family that is not the warm and fuzzy - but the real family that shows the ugliness and anger that really goes on within the facade.
technically beautiful ... morally crap 
2008-08-03
It should take more than technical perfection to deserve recognition by the Academy.
The plot is expertly crafted. The direction is superb. The acting immaculate. The photography and editing exemplify the highest standards of film making.
We learn nothing useful from this film. In this case the senseless death of the hero character is an insult. This film was a waste of good cellulose. What would have been useful is the way back ... teaching us how to turn desperate and deteriorating relationships around ... and move forward.
Enough has been said but.... 2008-07-02
There have been so many reviews of this movie I will limit my comment to state my sheer amazement after reading the 1 STAR reviews ...
It is beyond comprehension this brilliant piece of artistry can be rated below 3 STARS by anyone.... In my mind it is one of the most socio-realistic screen plays that have ever come out of Hollywood - not due to the (perhaps overly) tragicomic characterizations but because each character represents something real in all of us... But maybe that does not resonate with those among us who prefer to see the world as black and white rather than the accumulation of shades of grey we all live and live in.
For me this is one of my top10 movies of all time and one of the very few I can watch again and again.
From Pain To Pleasure 2008-05-31
My girlfriend bought this movie. I didn't want to see it. I thought it was a "chick flick". It was raining outside, and I had used up all my options. Now I had to watch it.
I should have known it would be good with Kevin Spacey in it. Everything he does it great. But I had no idea it was this good. I can usually figure out the endings of most Hollywood movies these days. They are all the same: the plots, the characters, the acting, or lack of it. I knew how this one was going to end, but was totally surprised by the circumstances. Tragedy and humor...mixed to perfection.
Great movie. Don't miss it.
The world according to drama majors 2008-05-04
The film's ending can be predicted after the first few scenes, unless one is completely unfamiliar with cookie cutter PC cliche-laden plot lines churned out by Hollywood's scriptwriting factories. (A quick quiz: in the land of Hollywood who is the ultimate villian -- the drug pusher, the cheating wife, the near-pedophile husband ... or, the man who won't come out of the closet?) A shallow film, about shallow people, given 5 stars by shallow reviewers.
One of my favorties from 1999 2008-03-25
Marking the feature film directorial debut of award-winning theatre director Sam Mendes this funny moving and shocking journey through life in suburban America follows the trials and tribulations of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Bening) an upper-middle class couple whose marriage - and lives - are slowly unraveling. Lester s wife hates him his daughter Jane regards him with contempt and his boss is positioning him for the ax. So Lester decides to make a few changes in his life; the freer he gets the happier he gets which is even more maddening to his wife and daughter. But Lester is about to learn that the ultimate freedom comes at the ultimate price. Winner of five Academy Awards: Best Picture Director Actor Screenplay and Cinematography.System Requirements:Starring: Kevin Spacey Annette Bening Thora Birch Chris Cooper Peter Gallagher Mena Suvari and Wes Bentley. Directed By: Sam Mendes. Running Time: 122 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Universal Distribution Corp.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 667068538229 Manufacturer No: 65382
Love it! 2008-03-11
As evidenced by the many stellar reviews, this is a great, great film. The fact that it is so enormously popular speaks to the quiet desperation many of us sometimes feel in our mundane, humdrum lives...where most of your time is spent doing stuff you are obligated to do, not what you really want to do.
From the exterior, Kevin Spacey's character has a good job, a great house, a beautiful wife and a loving daughter. The fact is, he's miserable. I love how he is sick of keeping up appearances. I love how he decides to live life the way he wants to - telling his boss to buzz off, buying his dream car, working out and smoking pot - it's brilliant. If a lot of people were brave enough, they would probably admit that they might like to go on a similar adventure.
In short, the way the tale unfolds is sheer brilliance. The end is shocking and surprising, and very powerful. This is mandatory movie watching for any film buff.
One of the best 2008-02-26
I don't know how to add to the great comments this incredible film has received. It is a masterpiece and I know that word gets thrown around a lot but this film is simply a piece of film perfection. I am much more into action films or sci fi and so when I watched this a few nights ago it really took total of my attention. With all the recent films I've watched in the past few years, I admit I became a bit jaded and not at all interested in all the 'best films' like this year but I am glad I went back and visited the Best Film from 1999. It is a special film.
Heart Rot 2007-11-26
Director Sam Mendes is a very well known Theater director in England . He had directed actors like Judi Dench and Ralph Fiennes in classical roles, working with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He directed Nicole Kidman in THE BLUE ROOM. He won a Tony for his Broadway revival of CABARET. Considered an "actor's director", Steven Spielberg (Filmworks produced the film) personally recommended Mendes for the director's chair. With an ample budget, Mendes was able to rehearse his actors for two weeks before shooting started. This always tightens dialogue and deepens characterizations. He also encouraged improvisation during the shoot. BEAUTY was his feature film debut. He did his homework, and came prepared with his story boards completed, and the movie clearly in his head. He has gone on to direct other fine films including ROAD TO PERDITION (2002), and JARHEAD (2005), which turned out to be a strong anti-war film in the guise of a gung-ho actioner. He has been called the "new" Kubrick by some. He is married to Kate Winslet, and they have homes in London and California .
Alan Ball, who wrote the screenplay, is a noted New York playwright. He was having lunch one windy day at the World Trade Center Plaza , and he watched a paper bag frisking and floating in the breeze; giving him the inspiration to write first a play, and then a screenplay. The theatrical version has never been produced. An outspoken gay activist and practitioner, he weaved the homosexual references expertly into the fabric of the story. It was not overdone, and it was certainly not overlooked. Much of the final action of the plot hinged on homophobia and closeted eroticism.
One of the most striking things about the movie was the astonishingly good cinematography by veteran cameraman Conrad L. Hall. He won an Oscar for his effort on the film. He gave us some masterful set ups that played lovingly with light and shadow, a bit reminiscent of James Wong Howe. I really noticed this by accident when I viewed the movie in black and white as a mistake of projection. The color red was the prominent motif for much of the movie--deep red roses in vases in nearly every room in the Burnham household, roses dominating the garden along the white picket fence, the only house in the neighborhood with a bright red door, a 1970 red Pontiac Firebird, and of course blood, which makes an appearance as well. In addition Lester's middle-aged fantasies and dreams about young Angela were dripping with red rose petals, bursting from her unzipped bodice, covering the ceiling as she hovered there, filling the steaming tub that she languished in while "awaiting" him. Secondary to a short shooting schedule several of the scenes had to be shot at night, and Hall had to light them to appear as day shots. He was very successful in this endeavor.
The wonderfully pounding driving musical score was written by veteran composer Thomas Newman. Mendes was interested in unique scoring, percussion and mallet instruments -and this intriguing thwacking moved the plot along, all the while building tension and interest. Later Newman and Conrad Hall teamed up again with Mendes when they made ROAD TO PERDITION (2002).
Kevin Spacey was excellent, pitch perfect, on the mark as Lester Burnham, a kind of 90's Willy Loman. Being faced with depression, discontent, unfulfilled sexual needs, and a mid-life crisis, somehow he found the presence of mind to put his world in order. To our delight he told off his dreary supervisor, told him where to shove their job, and then blackmailed the boss for a tidy sum, citing administrative misuse of funds for libation and prostitutes. He rushed away from the white collar stress, and blissfully got a job flipping burgers at Smiley's, became infatuated with his daughter's friend, Angela, began pumping iron to impress her, became a stoner buying from Ricky, the kid next door, and he purchased his fantasy car--a 1970 red Firebird. In the midst of all this bizarre behavior, he rediscovered himself, saying that he "was tired of being treated that I don't exist."
Annette Bening as the wife, Carolyn, infused the part with a focused, mannered, manic hectic energy, misdirecting her considerable passion toward her garden and career at the expense of her relationship with her family, and her marriage. She was a walking jabbering divorce waiting to happen. Oddly I detected a slight lisp in her dialogue that I had not noticed in her past performances; maybe it was character driven. Thora Birch, a child actress all grown up at 17 years old, played daughter Jane. Her nude scene was daring and unexpected. She underplayed and worked well with her eyes - her timing and transitions were bang on. We all have known this teenager in our lives. Chris Cooper was very intense, real, and dislikable as Col. Frank Fitts, USMC. It was not clear to me whether he was active duty or retired. In one of the earlier drafts of the screenplay, we discovered that Fitts had a gay lover that had died in Viet Nam . I am sad that bit was cut. It could have given even more depth to the Colonel; of course that depended on when it was revealed. The kiss in the rain scene was wonderfully shocking, and it certainly did not need to be deleted. Wes Bentley was mercurial, magnetic, creepy, and very self-assured as the "strange kid" next door, Ricky Fitts. He played him so clever that Ricky was always two jumps ahead of his parents, his teachers, and his school mates. Beyond being the new kid in school, he was extra hard to get to know. Neighbor Jane was at first creeped out by him, than she became fascinated as she learned to appreciate his intellect and sensitivity, as they became an item. Allison Janney played his put-upon wife, Barbara; her almost catatonic stillness was haunting and horrific--a woman who had chosen to shut down rather than live in a battle zone. Mena Suvari, also a child actress, was 19 years old when she shot BEAUTY. She was tantalizing and tragic as Miss Popular, Angela Hayes, who incessantly talked about sex to mantle her lack of experience and her lack of courage. Getting by all her life on her looks, nevertheless she had no real self-confidence. She wanted to be a teen model, but one got the feeling that she lacked the drive to make it happen. She was 19 years old when she filmed BEAUTY.
I loved the film, and have enjoyed repeated viewings. It is a very dark comedy that became a drama as it played out. The tragedy was connected to the humor, and yet I continuously hoped that Lester will be spared; and he never was. It is like I feel each time I watch WEST SIDE STORY (1961), hoping that Tony will not be shot during the next viewing, or that Kirk Douglas will make it out of SPARTACUS without being crucified. Thank God the director edited out the original ending where Jane and Ricky were brought to trial and then jailed for Lester's murder, as the Colonel's wife destroyed the bloody t-shirt.
the reality of life and what we do to survive 
2007-11-21
the lives of families are intertwined by their search for happiness and hiden emptiness. it shows what we think we want will make us happy and how we are forced to conform to strict rules to survive
jm
