Movie #37 – American Beauty (1999) - 122 min, cert 18.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is forced to reassess his suburban existence after being threatened with redundancy, and developing a crush on his daughter’s best friend at high school. He decides to make sweeping changes. He quits his job, blackmailing his boss for money instead, starts working out, and generally tries to take back control of his life.
I found this a hugely enjoyable movie. I’ve always considered Spacey an excellent actor, and he’s perfect for this role, really appearing to relish some of the scenes. It’s quite a quirky film about one man’s extreme mid-life crisis when he realizes just how dysfunctional his family actually is. We can’t help but envy Lester’s bravery in the way he makes such sweeping changes to his life, even though a lot of the decisions he makes are clearly ludicrous. I liked the fact that I couldn’t tell where the film was going, and the ending was still a surprise even though we are told about it in the beginning voice over.
Score – 9/10. Some great performances, and it kept my interest all the way through.
I went slightly wrong here and accidentally missed out a couple of movies on the list, jumping straight from #36 to #39. I watched two movies out of sequence, this one and American History X, before I realised my mistake and went back to view the ones I’d missed.
Next up is American History X which I’ve not seen, but comes highly recommended by a friend.
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