I just saw American Beauty finally. I didn't want to see it,
but went to indulge my brother. And the first half hour or so I
was squirming in my seat -- I thought it was horrible and cheesy.
It ended up being one of the best movies I've ever seen in my
life. I can't for the life of me imagine, unless it's due to the
earlier scenes, why anyone would call this a bad movie. My
brother suggests that it's because some of the caricatures in the
movie cut too close to the bone for some folk, but if so it's a
matter of their perception. There isn't anyone portrayed in the
movie who isn't wonderfully human; it's completely engaging to
watch every character unfold and I can't remember the last time I
watched a movie where my perspective was shifted so skillfully
and so many times. My perspective on each character and my
perspective on the tale. And the performances were excellent.
Different strokes for different folks; I saw beauty.
And not just in the beautiful shots and the brilliant engineering
of some of the scenes and the cutting from media to media and in
the soundtrack, not the standard sense of beauty, but beauty in
the way Ricky Fitts saw beauty in the face of god.
