American
Beauty
DOWN &
DIRTY:
Black Comedy: A middle-aged man,
facing a boring life, sets out to
reinvent himself after his
daughter's flirtatious teenage
friend reignites his passion for
living.
NITTY GRITTY:
Lester Burnham (KEVIN SPACEY) is
a 42-year-old man undergoing the
standard middle-age crisis. His
career at a magazine is going
nowhere, his perfectionist wife,
Carolyn (ANNETTE BENING), drives
him crazy and his teenager
daughter, Jane (THORA BIRCH)
barely talks to him.
Things begin to change with the
arrival of several new people who
shake things up. The once vacant
house next door has now been
occupied by the Fitts family.
Colonel Frank Fitts (CHRIS
COOPER) is a stern, military man
whose wife, Barbara (ALLISON
JANNEY), seems to be in state of
shell shock.
Their eighteen-year-old son,
Ricky (WES BENTLEY), so obsessed
with life and beauty that they
once institutionalized him, is a successful drug
dealer with a penchant for
videotaping everything, including
Jane next door.
This initially creeps Jane out,
but she soon starts to find Ricky
interesting once she gets to know
him. This disgusts Jane's
cheerleader friend, Angela (MENA
SUVARI), who thinks Ricky's a
pervert.
When Lester meets both Angela and
Ricky, he finds a stirring within
himself that he long thought
dormant and perhaps dead. After
Angela flirts with him, Lester
goes into hormonal overdrive and
fantasizes about her. Then he
starts pumping iron to get into
shape and make himself more
attractive to her.
With Ricky, Lester finds his
carefree attitude about life and
work causes Lester to change his
outlook on life. Lester sets out
to have a good time, not caring
that his wife may be having an
affair with the local real estate
king, Buddy Kane (PETER
GALLAGHER).
THE ENDING:
Lester has a chance to make it
with Angela when she comes over
to see Jane. They are in
the living room and Angela starts
to undress. Then she tells Lester
that she's never done it
before. Lester looks at her and
realizes he can't deflower her.
Ricky's father, already
suspicious of his son's
involvement with Lester, watches
them through an open window.
Frank sees what he thinks is his
son having oral sex with Lester
(based on his point of view
through two windows, one that
shows Lester lying back and
enjoying himself, the adjacent
one showing Ricky bent down as if
at his crotch -- in reality, he's
rolling and licking a joint near
Lester).
When confronted, Ricky lies to
his father that he IS a
homo, just to piss him off. Ricky
decides to take Jane and go to
New York city.
Colonel Fitts comes over to see
Lester. Lester is working out in
the garage and Fitts, thinking
Lester gay, kisses him. Lester
tells him he is not that way.
Fitts leaves,
but returns and shoots Lester in
his kitchen.
WHAT EVERYONE WILL BE
TALKING ABOUT:
The performance of
newcomer Wes Bentley as Ricky
Fitts.
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