American Beauty (1999)

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

Director:

Sam Mendes

Writer:

Alan Ball

Stars:

Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch

Top 250 #55 | Won 5 Oscars. Another 89 wins & 74 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kevin Spacey	...	Lester Burnham
Annette Bening	...	Carolyn Burnham
Thora Birch	...	Jane Burnham
Wes Bentley	...	Ricky Fitts
Mena Suvari	...	Angela Hayes
Chris Cooper	...	Col. Frank Fitts, USMC
Peter Gallagher	...	Buddy Kane
Allison Janney	...	Barbara Fitts
Scott Bakula	...	Jim Olmeyer
Sam Robards	...	Jim Berkley
Barry Del Sherman	...	Brad Dupree
Ara Celi	...	Sale House Woman #1
John Cho	...	Sale House Man #1
Fort Atkinson	...	Sale House Man #2
Sue Casey	...	Sale House Woman #2

Storyline

Lester and Carolyn Burnham are on the outside, a perfect husband and wife, in a perfect house, in a perfect neighborhood. But inside, Lester is slipping deeper and deeper into a hopeless depression. He finally snaps when he becomes infatuated with one of his daughter's friends. Meanwhile, his daughter Jane is developing a happy friendship with a shy boy-next-door named Ricky, who lives with a homophobic father.

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Plot Keywords:

infatuation | friendship | fast food restaurant | drugs | depression | 

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Taglines:

... look closer

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Genres:

Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexuality, language, violence and drug content

Details

Official Sites:

DreamWorks Official Facebook

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 October 1999 (USA)

Also Known As:

Belleza americana

Filming Locations:

11388 Homedale Street, Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$15,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£425,558 (UK) (28 January 2000)

Gross:

AUD 11,029,726 (Australia) (15 December 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks SKG, Jinks/Cohen Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

122 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The bartender at the restaurant where Ricky works is producer Bruce Cohen.

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Goofs

At the beginning of the movie, when Lester is in the shower, you can see a reflection/silhouette on the shower door.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jane Burnham: I need a father who's a role model, not some horny geek-boy who's gonna spray his shorts whenever I bring a girlfriend home from school. What a lame-o. Someone really should just put him out of his misery.
Ricky Fitts: Want me to kill him for you?
Jane Burnham: Yeah. Would you?

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Crazy Credits

thanks to all at the Donmar Warehouse in London and Dr. Bill and Alice

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Connections

Spoofed in The Wrong Coast (2004)
"American Beauty" spoofed as "American Booty"

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Soundtracks

"Open The Door"
Written and Performed by Betty Carter
Courtesy of Blue Note Records, A Division of Capitol Records, Inc.
Uncer license from EMI-Capitol Music Special Markets

User Reviews

A deep, wonderful, penetrating film; extraordinary irony in a psychological drama about the American life.

I have come to see the movie with a certain prejudice. Everyone saying that it was so wonderful, so touching, so excited -- I usually tend to go with movies that nobody likes. Nevertheless, this one was a certain exception.

It is a wonderful psychological drama, a satire about the American community and about the American life; dark, painful irony and cynicism in the descriptions of life and characters; deep sarcasm on types of people in the community, habits of behaviour such as "...if you want to succeed, you always have to seem successful..." or "never stop smiling", parasites of the community, and, most importantly, the treatment of people who are "different", who are "freaky" to some extent; and eventually, there is no character in the film that is not odd in its way, although we have to wait for the very ending of the film, to discover this.

With very deep and accurate exaggeration, (most of) the characters in the movie demonstrate the worst, the darkest sides of their personality, while still remaining very human, very touching and very involving the observer. Everyone can find a certain similarity with characters and persons who he met in his life, in the characters described in the film. The tragi-comical events, the little pieces of funny, disturbing irony dripping from almost every episode, lead the observer to exploration of the American Beauty -- the beauty in life, and the way that we fail to find it, for all our life; the way we hide our feelings and emotions, even behind sullen walls of our sepulchre.

The acting is truly brilliant, the episodes are built logically, coherently, the dialogues are deep, thrilling, intriguing; every sentence and every word is deeply constructed, containing profound irony and intelligent elements of humors. The plot is very intelligently built, constructing a true indication of the sad situation of the American society, and an excellent ground for the actors.

An amazing movie, strongly recommended. 10/10