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American Beauty [Region 2]
Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0678149096422
Format: PAL
Languages: German (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Region Code: 2
Theatrical Release Date: October 01, 1999
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Editorial Review:
From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, American Beauty moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism--like Sunset Boulevard's Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave.
It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence.
Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses--and of blood. --Sam Sutherland
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Enough has been said but....
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 ... Read More
Rating: - From Pain To Pleasure
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 ... Read More
Rating:  - The world according to drama majors
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.
Rating: - One of my favorties from 1999
Anercian Beauty is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The film is very dark, very funny and tragic. Kevin Spacey did give a very Oscar worthy performance as did Annette Beinnig. Mena Suvair plays Angela with top notch as a young women who uses seduction for her own purposes but has her own secerets. Sam Mendes makes an amazing film his first time out. The cinematography by Conrad Ball is some of the best ever put on film.
Rating: - Love it!
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. ... Read More
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