American Beauty

American Beauty compiles of sexuality and violence. It is a dark comedy that glimpses into the horrific, mundane lives of a suburban family burdened with modern-day existence. It is a true representation of everyday life. Kevin Spacey is the main character of the film. After watching it, I find that is a god one. In this report, I will examine the beauty portrayed in the film.

Lester is the main character of the film. He has a miserable and monotonous life. He has a poor relationship with his daughter, Jane. She does not respect him. Moreover, he has a loveless marriage with Carolyn, who is a materialist. She merely cares about her real estate business and ignores her husband. She obliviously puts her job ahead of her family and personal happiness until she becomes a slave to it. She always has arguments with Lester. Later on, she even has an affair with a real estate colleague Buddy. On the other hand, Lester turns his lustful gaze towards Jane’s pretty classmate, Angela. All these give rise to the broken family.

Jane is depressed as she lives under the broken family. She hates her parents, as they seldom concern about her. She hates her family, especially her father. She even requests her boy friend, Ricky to kill him. Ricky is her new neighbor. He is interested in video recording on beautiful stuff. His father is strict to him. He often hits him for some minor incidents since he “cares” about him. He doesn’t want his son to become a bad guy. As Ricky has a similar family background with Jane, they soon fall in love. As both of them do not want to live with their families anymore, they leave their families and insist on living on a new life this is free from her father’s control.

With the broken marriage and family, Lester feels blue. At the same time, he is fired by his boss. All these account for his depression. He feels sad at first, however, he thinks differently after several incidents. He just turns to a different angle to look at his life. He feels sorry about his wife and daughter. Before he can apologize for his rudeness, Ricky’s father, who thinks that he has an affair with his son, kills him. Before the moment of death, Lester remembers many happy fragments with his wife and daughter. He finds that life is beautiful and begins to understand the reality of living. However, it is already too late.

There are several messages conveyed in this film. “Beauty” is the main theme of the film. What is “beauty”? The narrator successfully portrays the reality of “beauty”. Many people have the misconception about the real meaning of “beauty”, just like Angela and Lester. They think that having an appealing appearance and body are criterion of “beauty”. They pursue such “beauty” in their whole life spans. For Angela, she always shows off her appealing appearance and body in front of others. She even tells others her sex experiences with different men so as to show off her attractiveness. Lester is one of them. He wants to have an affair with Angela. In order to catch her attention, he does exercise every day in order to keep fit. However, happiness is not associated with such kind of “beauty”. Although Angela is pretty, she is not happy at all. Others hate her, as she is proud. She gets no friend. Eventually, Lester has a chance to have an affair with Angela, but he is not happy due to his broken family. Indeed, “beauty” can simply be found everywhere. For instance, a “flying” plastic bag under strong wind is the most beautiful stuff that Ricky has even seen. He thinks that the “lonely” bag is “dancing” with him. That is his perception. From this, we can know that “beauty” is always nearby. If we treasure all things around, life can be beautiful. We should treasure and enjoy every moment in life. Otherwise, like Lester, it will be too late to regret.

Besides the reality of beauty, we can understand the importance of having a harmonious family. Parents should put more time on their children rather than just cater for their work. Jane’s family is a concrete example. Her parents seldom concern about her. They are always busy with their work. They are even too busy to share the happiness and sadness with their daughter. It leads to a poor relationship among Jane and her parents. Furthermore, exercising violence is not a panacea of teaching children. Just like Ricky’s father, he hits and blames Ricky all the time for some minor stuff. It provokes the discontent of his son. Parents should try to understand their children instead of hitting and blaming them blindly. They should listen to them. Thus, a harmonious relationship among parents and children can be built.

All in all, American Beauty successfully portrays the reality of “beauty”. Beauty is always around us, just depends on our finding out it or not. We should treasure what we have rather than counting what have missed . We will be happier and easier then.