Watched American Beauty (1999)

Is it weird to watch adult movies from your childhood?

We watched a film that came out back in 1999. It always seemed like the films of that time had some kind of charm. All of them, not any in particular. For me, that was the golden age of cinema. When there weren’t so many computer graphics, and even mass-produced films had some kind of zest. This also applies to this film.

The film begins with a story about a girl telling about a man she is offered to kill. She agrees to it and then the picture switches to the voice of the narrator, who tells about his place of residence and that… in a year he will die. Later we learn that the narrator is Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), and the girl in the video is his daughter Jane (Thora Birch).

Lester’s family doesn’t seem happy and seems more like an attempt to be a perfect family, when in reality they are not. Nevertheless, Lester himself seems to be a fairly intelligent and honest person, although at other times it feels like he is actually a fool who…looks at his daughter’s young friend.

Kevin Spacey’s performance in this film is the driving force behind everything, as it leads you along the path you create in your head, making certain logical connections. But in reality, things are not as simple as they seem, and not all people are who they seem. Although Lester says he doesn’t know about his death, at the same time it feels like he decided to “live one day at a time” and forget about everything else. But isn’t that the point of our lives? In being able to just “let go” of everything and live one day at a time?

Meanwhile, other characters have their own plans for a bright future, so against their background, Spacey’s character looks like a carefree fool. In the second moment he is already a hero-lover, and in the third he is a father, which he could never become. All this makes the story multifaceted, when you change your attitude towards the hero several times during the film according to his actions and worldview.

We also watched Ghost World with Thora Birch, where she played roughly the same “adult child” who has an adult worldview in a young body, which makes it difficult for her to perceive the whole world around her. Interestingly, here she also has a close friend, Angela (Mina Suvari), who has a somewhat opposite worldview to that in Ghost World.

As for Angela herself, it’s hard to agree on her relationship with Jane’s father, as there are certain elements of Lolita here. In some places it all looks quite funny (when Lester overhears the girls’ conversation, in which Angela says she wouldn’t mind sleeping with him if he “pumped up a bit”, and he starts to take care of himself and go in for sports), in some places it’s unpleasant (as in the example of an adult man’s encroachments on a young girl), but I think it’s more about playing with the audience’s emotions than about the desire to show some pervert.

Over time, Kevin Spacey will be accused of sexual harassment, and this role looks all the more strange against the background of all these rumors when you watch the film now. And at the same time, it is a fairly light film, in which there is something to laugh at in places, in places to think about why the world works the way it does. At other times, you understand that this is more of a tragedy than a comedy. But overall, I would recommend the film to watch. There is something to think about.