Okay, here's the deal. Y'all know by now that it wouldn't be fall without the leaves
turning colors, the air getting brisk, and the "important movies" coming out. Yeah, we've had
all our happy-go-lucky springtimers, and our napalm adventure fireballs for the summer, so the
Oscar® race has to get rolling bigtime after Labor Day weekend. It's not as bad as it gets on
towards December, when we get the "limited release" idea, where you throw a movie out a couple
of days before Christmas so it'll make the list for that year's horserace, but they don't start spending
any money on it until after the New Year.
Well, consider the flag waved and the race on, I guess. Robin
Williams did his "important" film, Jakob the Liar, and good
luck if you can still find it anywhere. Ashley Judd, and Tommy Lee Jones are scoring some
points, but I doubt a women's revenge flick is going to hamper any Golden Ballots, unless we
get a "no-women's-role" flare-up again, but I figure Meryl and Susan and them will have that
covered.
In our favor, though, LA Confidential helped changed those rules a bit by spreading out
the schedule some. LA Con declared the whole fall season as
Contender Time when it came out in mid-September of 1997 and built a huge following despite
a very limited ad campaign. And, remember, Miss Kim went home with a statue nonetheless. So, now, the studios are willing to
give us an occasional gift amidst the wasteland of also-rans.
And, high on the list of surprise presents is American
Beauty, the new film starring Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects) and Annette Bening (Bugsy). Not a lot of
major talk through the summer on this one. This one just kinda happened, but if it did,
please count me in for the next big happening, because this one is a first-class winner.
Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, an early 40s burnout who, by his own admission, is
spending life in a walking coma. His wife, Carolyn (Bening) ignores him, instead focusing on
her ambition to be the best realtor in town. His daughter Jane, played by Thora Birch (Clear & Present Danger), despises him just
because he's there. He tolerates his job, only to the point of showing up. Lester's life is lukewarm tar, and he's neck deep in it.
But, then, things start happening. New neighbors move in next door. A former Marine (Chris
Cooper) is the head of the new household, and he likes things to be right and proper. He gives
his son Ricky (Wes Bentley) regular urine tests to keep the drugs out of his house. He doesn't
know Ricky has a pretty good business selling high-grade pot. Ricky is a philosophical young
man who also has a hobby of videotaping virtually everything around him. Carolyn, on the other
hand, has her mind set on besting her rival real estate broker (Peter Gallagher), who speaks in
business-school sound bytes and happens to be extremely good looking.
And, did I mention that Lester awakens from his coma when he sees Jane's friend Angela
during school basketball halftime show? Angela (Mena Suvari of American Pie) dances into his head, and sets
fire to his libido, his attitude, and his lifestyle. She's gorgeous, she's 16, and she
plays the Lolita like nothing he's ever seen. Lester fights through a downsizing at
his job by blackmailing his way to a $60,000 severance package, he starts smoking doobage with
Ricky, begins to listen to his '60s music again, and gets a new job flipping burgers, just
like he did one summer when he was a kid. And he learns how to smile again.
If I were to tell you that American Beauty is some uplifting, goal-setting,
earth-shattering event, I'd be stretching it like silly putty. It's a beautiful movie, but it ain't
pretty, not by a long shot. On the surface, this movie is as bitter as persimmon wine, and it
pulls no punches in making it very clear that everyone in this movie is miserable, despite
whatever surface they decide to show. Sam Mendes, the rookie director here, works it
into a masterful piece of storytelling. He bores into the subtext of these characters and lets
us see core emotion, but only in small glimpses. Angela, whose sex-kitten exterior, is the
last to shatter, and when it does, it opens Lester's final locked door to self-recognition.
And, even then, it is no great swell of music and light. It's a simple, understated line of
dialogue, repeated twice, and it ultimately gives Lester his full development as a character.
Thankfully, screenwriter Alan Ball, who is also a rookie, has a fascinating ability to
blend his dramatics with humor, so, as the film hits home in every area, it never hammers
you over the head with overly poignant scenes. Instead, the subtlety nudges its points into your head, and, when it's over, you realize, "Hmmm. That was almost too close for
comfort."
And, while Mendes and Hall should get all the credit they deserve, the casting choices make this
movie. A big "Hail Hail" for not sliding these roles off to the huge-name stars. It would've
been easy to shoehorn some name-above-the-title actors in these lead roles, and it would've
screwed the chemistry of the picture so badly it would have been harder to fathom
than Grand Canyon. Spacey's at the top of his game here, as
perfect as he was in Swimming With Sharks but a 180-degree turn from that character. If this
doesn't prove definitively that he's one our most talented actors, nothing else
will. Ms. Annette is very good, especially as the tension mounts and we get to see the cracks
in the china-doll exterior. Wonderful job, also, by Wes Bentley. His Ricky can speak volumes
with few words. Whether he's giggling with Spacey about
Re-Animator (the Doc's all-time fave guilty pleasure movie, by the way), quietly admiring
the beauty of a small bag caught in the wind, or trying desperately to speak to his Marine
father in terms he understands, he is in perfect character. The diversity of that character
alone should win a few awards somewhere down the line.
I do, though, want to pay a specific kudo to Thora Birch and Mena Suvari. As Jane and
Angela, they play roles that could be easily stereotyped by the
90210 Syndrome, playing them wooden and undeveloped, or God forbid, cutesy. But these two girls sweep these roles into two sides of the same persona, the
teenage girl. Angela is the manipulative side, who works her sexual appeal for everything she
has in life. Jane is the introspective side, the observer in the world, who realizes there has
to be more out there somewhere. And, when Jane finds her sexual side, it's no coincidence that
Angela begins to become a tad more thoughtful and insightful. The two are blending into one,
and becoming the other. I hope these two beautiful young women get some sort of recognition for
their roles here, because they earned it.
I would not hesitate to predict nominations for several members of this party, although to
single out one might seem unfair to everyone else. This is one of the first movies all year to
prove the theory that, if the entire team is near perfect, the film reflects it. Sacrifice one
member of this cast, or throw another director in, or a rewrite from some bigger name, it would've only diminished the final product.
Friends and neighbors, if you haven't seen American Beauty
yet, you've missed a fantastic film. Kevin Spacey leads a superb cast through the story of
one man's rebirth in life, and, although the ending might not be what you expect, it doesn't damage the end result. American Beauty is a film of
imagination, wonder, and dark humor that, at this point, is the front runner in the foundling Oscar race. Get it in gear, people, and get to the theatres before it gets swamped by the
wave of fall releases.
Image copyright Dreamworks.
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