| The “soap opera” is a very American genre, so we should not be surprised to learn that films depicting enigmas faced by ordinary Americans will captivate many Americans. The Ozzie & Harriet days of simple problems are gone, so the late 1990s are likely to confront Americans with more existential dilemmas. We should have expected Academy awards for the quintessential soap opera American Beauty for best picture, its director Sam Mendes, and the male lead Kevin Spacey, since many Academy voters are young, presumably hung up on exactly the issues that are dramatized in the film, although the tagline asks us to “Look closer.” Politics pervades the film, since politics is about power, and most portrayals in the film are of characters seeking to maximize their power regardless of the impact that they have on others. Based on the novel of the same title by Alan Ball, the film is about conflicts that are for the most part incapable of being resolved, namely, the use of sexual fantasies to achieve identity in an America middle-class suburbia where everyone is supposed to be happy because they have achieved the American dream — a house, upscale furnishings, a family with a child, and employment that pays well, though no loyal dog or even a cuddly cat. Two age cohorts, however, need to deal with different issues. The teenage generation wants to grow up and become mature, but the fortiesh adults are instead trying to recapture their youth, so nobody is happy. Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) is tired of the routine at work and at home, where his realtor wife Carolyn (played by Annette Bening) so completely controls him that she has him mentally castrated while she conducts an extramarital love affair with fellow realtor Budy Kane (played by Peter Gallagher). Their daughter Jane (played by Thora Birch) hates her parents because they are too busy hating each other, in part because they do not see themselves as successes at work. Jane’s best friend Angela Hayes (played by Mena Suvari) makes up X-rated stories about her boyfriends to impress her and also makes a pass at Lester, urging him to be more sexy by building muscle. Lester then dreams about her taking a bath in American Beauty Rose petals, but when he later comes on to her, she admits that she is a virgin, so he backs off. Colonel Frank Fitts (played by Chris Cooper) is a Nazi-loving former marine whose authoritarian discipline at home turns his wife Barbara (played by Allison Janney) into a zombie while his son Ricky (played by Wes Bentley) copes by selling marijuana, making videos, and otherwise appearing to be a lunatic. Then, all of a sudden, Lester decides to get a life — -he quits his job, starts jogging and lifting weights, and buys the dream car of his youth — a flashy Firebird. When he arranges to buy a bagful of grass one night from Ricky, Frank assumes from a glance at the window next door that his son is providing sexual service to Lester, so he accuses his son of being a “faggot.” Cleverly, Ricky admits that he gives $2,000 blowjobs so that his father will force him to move out, and Ricky then offers to take Jane to start a new life in New York. The colonel then goes to the garage, where Lester is lifting barbells and plants an unexpected kiss on his lips, but Lester rejects the overture, and Frank returns home to shoot himself. Meanwhile, in his new role at a take-out window of a fast-food restaurant, a job that he wanted with the least responsibility, Lester has seen his wife kissing her lover. Although Lester takes the development with equanimity, Carolyn is brokenhearted because she was only turned on by the thought that she was secretly cheating on him, so she takes out her aggression by buying a gun, practicing her marksmanship at a gun club, and contemplates shooting her husband. Just like a soap opera, the only way for a writer to end the series is to kill the central character. So much for the American dream and for the American Beauty. MH |