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 | love | lust | 

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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 helicopter shot at the beginning of the movie was originally for a flying sequence where Lester floats over the houses and then down onto his bed.

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Goofs

Lester driving to the song "American Woman" appears to be making a continuous right turn by the tilt of his steering while driving down a straight road (compare the position of the steering wheel in the next scene where he is actually driving the car into Mr. Smiley's). The Camry is obviously being towed on a process trailer for this shot but someone has neglected to straighten out the front wheels of the car before turning the engine off and securing it to the trailer.

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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

References The Usual Suspects (1995)

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Soundtracks

"We Haven't Turned Around"
Written by Ian Ball, 'Paul Blackburn', Thomas Gray, Benjamin Ottewell and Oliver Peacock
Performed by Gomez
Courtesy of Virgin Records Limited/Virgin Records America, Inc.

User Reviews

Beautiful...

Probably the best film of 1999. This dark comedy drama marks two fantastic feature film debuts with Alan Ball as writer and Sam Mendes as director (both winning oscars for their sterling efforts).

Kevin Spacey plays Lester Burnham, a man on the brink of a mid-life crisis, who suddenly becomes obsessed with one of his teenage daughters friends played by Mena Suvari. His daughter (Thora Birch) is, as Lester tells us; "a typical teenager. Angry, insecure, confused...". And his wife Caroline (Annette Bening) has an obsession of her own, her public appearance.

Life starts off on a downer for the Burnhams and their new neighbours the Fitts despite their lives looking good from the outside.

As life begins to improve (with most of the main characters finding what they think is love or new relationships) it soon all comes crashing down in the climactic final day.

The writing is nothing short of brilliant and made even more amazing by knowing that it comes from a first time feature film screen writer Alan Ball (who had had years of prior experience writing TV sitcoms - not that you'd be able to guess from the tone of this film).

The directing is on a par with the writing and Sam Mendes manages to get some brilliant performances from the great cast, who are all faultless. No doubt Mendes' theatre directing past played a huge part in directing the actors so well.

Another person worthy of a mention is the late director of photography Conrad L. Hall, another one of the five oscar recipients for this film.

All the elements in this film gel perfectly together to make one superb masterpiece. Not one person, either cast or crew, steals this film or does anymore than anyone else to make this film what it is. Truly an ensemble effort. 10/10.