People really live their life like this. (American Beauty (DVD))

Member Name: misslook

Product:	American Beauty (DVD)
Date:	22/06/01 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funny, moving ,shocking

Disadvantages: none I liked it

This film got 5 Oscars including best picture.
6 Baffas including best firm.
So if you haven’t seen it yet you’re in for a very entertaining two hours.

Lester Burnham is a 42-year-old man who is on the verge of a mid-life crisis.
The film starts by showing you him in the shower wanking off. He says “this is the high point of my day, it’s always down hill from here.
He then talks about his life, saying is wife is a total head case and just watching her exhausts him. His neighbours are gay and his daughter Janie is a typical teenager, angry, confused he explains “I’d like to tell her these feelings will all past” then adds “but I don’t want to lie to her”.

Lester’s wife and daughter think he is a total loser and go about their day just ignoring him. Lester thinks he is a loser himself but then he says “things are going to change”.

His boss Brad is about to fire Lester, when he quits anyway, then blackmails him for 60.000 dollars.

Some new neighbours move in next door, the boy is about the same age has Janie and he quickly takes a liking to her. He wanders around all day with a cam- corder filming anything to anyone he finds interesting. The lad seems very strange and slightly mysterious.

Lester and his wife go to see their daughter do a dance routine at school. This is the moment that changes Lester’s life. This is the moment he meets Angela. (Janie’s best friend at school).
Angela is a bit of a flirt herself and I think she is very confused, she is always trying the impress people and is always talking about sex and men.

Meanwhile Lester can’t get Angela out of his head he starts to constantly daydreaming and fantasising about her. He starts to feel like a man again and decides that he is going to sort out his life and have some fun.

Janie spots the strange boy from next door spying on her a
nd calls him a psycho, but really she has took a liking to him. She likes the way he is different from the other boys and the way he always acts so weird.

Lester and his wife go to a dinner party together, she asks Lester not to embarrass her, which he does anyway by acting sarcastic. While she plays the little miss businesswomen act, Lester goes to the bar and gets bladdered. The strange boy from next door is working has a waiter at the party. He spots Lester and they get talking, and they end up smoking joints and laughing and joking.

When Lester and his wife arrive back home their daughter Janie and Angela greet them. Angela sleeps over the night and Lester over hears Angela saying she thinks he his sexy and that if he worked out and got fit she would fuck him.
So Lester starts working out and lifting weights in his garage.

Janie gets more and more friendly with the boy next door. He tells Janie a bit about is life, his dad caught him smoking dope when he was 15, so he made him go to military school. He got kicked out of military school, and then at his new school a boy started making fun of his hair cut so he beat the lad up. His dad then put him in a mental hospital, where he was drugged and left for 2 years.
His dad is a complete control freak; he makes him have drug tests, searches his room and beats him.
Life for Janie has become very depressing, with her parents constantly arguing, she turns to the boy next door for love. She longed to run away with him to get away from it all.

Lester decides to get a job again but not in an office or for a high rate company, no he decides to go for a job interview at Smiles fast food (it’s like our Mc Donald’s).

Whilst Lester was working at Smiles fast food one day, on the drive through, he over hears his wife talking while an order was being taken. He goes to give them their order and sees his wife in the car with another man. Lester then smiles and s
ays “ you don’t get to tell me what to do ever again”.

There are loads of different things going on all at once in this film, although it is very easy to follow.
I don’t want to spoil the ending and the object of writing an opinion is suppose to make you want to rush out an get a copy, so I am going to leave the ending for you to watch.
It may sound a little funny but when you are watching the film it seems to have quite a serious mood all the way through it. This as got to be one of the best films made ever.
Not to be missed.
The ending made me cry, but I can’t say anything more.

Starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Being.

My copy of the film cost me 7.99, as it was an ex-rental. You could pick one up new for about 9.99 now.

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