note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room

American Beauty is an extremely successful drama that won the Best Picture Oscar, and also won Kevin Spacey his much deserve acting Oscar, as well as one for Alan Ball for his superb screenplay (Ball would later go on to work on the brilliant show Six Feet Under and also newer show True Blood).

The film's protagonist is Lester Burnham (Spacey), who declares from the outset that in less than a year, he will be dead. From here, he narrates the final months of his life, outlaying his every day activities, and how he lives with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening), who is very prim and proper and not particularly reflective of the free young spirit she was when he married her. He also has a daughter, Jane (Thora Birch) who is thoroughly disgusted with her life and finds her parents anachronistic and tiresome.

The film observes the notion of the American dream - the white picket fence and all - and dissects it bitingly, in this clever satire that picks apart the seedier undercurrent and obsessions of these seemingly perfect lives. It also looks at the neighbourhood as a whole, turning to retired United States Marine Corps Colonel Frank Fitts (Cooper), who has an apathetic wife, Barbara, and also a drug dealer son, Ricky (Wes Bentley).

This is a superb drama that's got a biting sense of humour, expertly taking the American dream and superficiality of suburban life to task. Alan Ball is a real writing talent, which he also proved further on his TV work, and Sam Mendes' brilliant direction manages to elicit some sublime performances throughout.

American Beauty is a superb satire on the American dream, bolstered by Spacey's delightfully dark-humoured performance. The script is wonderfully witty, yet also highly poignant by the time the film ends.