rhallman

Rosalind Russell plays Louise Randall Pierson (someone I've never heard of, but this is based on her autobiography). Directed by Michael Curtiz, it showcases Russell and the often underrated Jack Carson as they face financial feast and famine and an ever-expanding family. Russell is tough, and unapologetic, and Carson is her equal. The film, coming from 1945, has a strange cliff hanging effect, as it ends with the beginning of World War II, and you wonder what will happen next. At the time it must have hit home for a lot of families with men (and women) fighting overseas. But I would strongly recommend it as a movie to watch before the films "Since You Went Away", with Claudette Colbert which chronicles life at home during the war, and "Best Years of Their Lives", which is probably the best coming-home-from-war film ever made. The three would make a great sequential view of life from the turn of the century to post WWII America. 8.5 out of 10.

American Beauty as the title is a play on Annette Bening's character Carolyn who obsessess about her roses which are "American Beauty Roses", a type of rose. Notice that all through the film there are vases stuffed with these roses and that the color red and the rose petals of Lester's lustful fantasies destroy the "flower-ness" of the American Beauty roses. Also remember that the theater poster says "look closer". Deflowering means destroying innocence. Take a lit class, pal.

Life, as Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) tells us in the opening scenes is not as perfect as it appears. "We're only a commercial for a happy family," he says. With an emaciated, brittle, acquisition-driven wife played by Annette Bening, and a seemingly uninterested and inscrutable Thora Birch as a typical detached "my parents are total ***holes" daughter, it is no wonder that Lester is numbly standing on the edge of the precipice. And what a precipice it is. Birch's friend, a Lolita of unlimited bravado thinks Lester is "sexy". Next door a pot selling eighteen-year-old follows every move around him with a video camera, while dodging urine tests and beatings by his Marine Corps father (brilliantly played by Chris Cooper). In fact the only normal family on the street are the gay couple, Jim and Jim who welcome the baffled Marine to the neighborhood with a basket of flowers and pasta.

Spacey is well known for the all-important 'nineties-style irony in all roles. Roles such as the robber who follows Meryl Streep to her therapy group in "Heartburn" wielding a gun while saying "sorry about your ring, lady", and as the SOB in "Glengarry Glen Ross" and the wise-too-late detective in "L.A. Confidential" established him as a kind of humorous/tough wise guy. In "The Ref" he played a kind of put upon husband done lite. But here Spacey is a weak tree thrashed by the demands of his frustrated wife and brown-nosing job. When the whack finally comes the core of his ego and longing emerge with startling effects. He seems to leap into his life free of responsibilities. But is it a leap or a fall? He clearly enjoys every minute of it, savoring his newfound freedom and the chaos it creates.

As the confluence of events lead to a stunning conclusion, you will find everything you thought you knew about these characters blown away. Those who approach the film with preconceived notions of familiar character types should check them at the door. Because in this house, as in most houses, you really have no idea about what takes place within.

This is a movie that must not be missed. Along with "The Best Years of Their Lives", "It's A Wonderful Life", and "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" it is a commentary on the American dream at one moment in the timeline but seen through one man's desperate gaze. See it and be amazed.