Settling Down with American Beauty: Opinion Essay

Ever watched a movie that just made you so frustrated you want to scream at the screen. Where characters make you react in negative ways. Sometimes the flaws in characters make the movie better to watch, and that ladies and gentlemen is how I felt about American Beauty. People either really hate or really love this film from what I’ve seen. It’s really like politics there’s only a left or a right, no middle ground. People like to think they are the middle ground but let us be honest you either hate it or love it.

American Beauty is about a suburban American family in the 1990s. The Burnhams are an example of a dying family in America. It’s like the exact opposite of what you see of an American family in media. When looking at it’s really the American movie of loneliness, depression, and despair. [Writer’s name] actually based the story on the [name] trial of 1992. This has you think some big trial is going to happen later in the film with these two, but it just doesn’t happen.

This beginning scene would be a lot more impactful if the story really went that route. After that we get a narration of Lester and how he lives his life, introducing us to his family and himself in a hilarious scene of him rubbing one out in the shower. We see a bit of the bad relationship the Burnham family has in the beginning scene where they are riding to work and school together. It really gets worse later on like in the film, like in the dinner table scenes. Lester Burnham is facing a midlife crisis, he wants to make himself feel young again. He takes a look at Ricky Fitts and wants to be like him. There’s something really wrong with his behavior, after all he’s the “man” of his household. How can he think it’s appropriate to want to be like a teenager getting high on doobie and has his own problems going on in his head. Lester is so infatuated with youth that he’s even attracted to his teenage daughter’s friend Angela. Now here I have to talk about my opinion on Lester’s feelings to Angela. This is the big controversy to this film, what makes people hate it. First off no, this movie does not endorse pedophilia! I highly doubt that’s what Alan Ball was going for.

The marketing to this movie does give the wrong idea. I don’t like the marketing to this movie at all. It sexualizes Angela, a underage character, too much! Lester wants to find a way to impress this 16 year old that he starts working out, smoking weed, quits his job, buys a new car and acts like the person he wanted to be when he was young. It’s justifiable to why Jane and Carolyn hate him, he’s a douchebag! Pretty sure that big house with a beautiful red door aint cheap, chief. Speaking on money let’s talk about Carolyn. The most money hungry women I have seen, like step away Mr Krabs. Carolyn is obsessed with her job and her household. She’s only number two in real estate in her area. Buddy Kane being the top dog. She only wishes she was more like him to fulfill her hunger. She enjoys him so much that has an affair on Lester with Buddy Kane. She’s obsessed with the idea of professionalism and power that Buddy has in his annoying looking eyebrows.

Normally I don’t bash how a character looks, but I just wanna take Peter Gallager to get his eyebrows done at a salon. It’s bothered me the whole movie. If the color red and roses are the number one motif for the film then Gallager’s eyebrows are probably second on that list. While Lester is turning his mindset to a younger state of mind, Carolyn is going the exact opposite. You can see that there was a time, where these two really did love each other one time. Some of us had the experience of parents who absolutely hate each other and can relate to Jane. Living in a household where the two adults are slowly tearing each other apart is not fun. Both Lester and Carolyn try to make Jane side with one of them. Jane really is the most innocent of this story, the way she acts is because of her parents. When Jane says, “I need a father who’s a role model, not some horny geek-boy who’s gonna spray his shorts every time I bring a girlfriend home from school,” it really shows you how immature Lester is being that his own daughter notices and wishes she had that kind of attention. After the first dinner scene Lester tries to condemn himself with Jane, and she states that they’ve barely spoke in months. As much as she doesn’t show it Jane really is desperate to have attention from her parents. She’s isolated from the family she had before and when they are together it always ends in utter chaos.