I just saw American Beauty (I got a one day reprieve from the in-laws
to rest my voice and recover from laryngitis).
I hated it. There are only a handful of films that I really
detest, and this one has the dubious honor of joining such films
as Godzilla and Legends of the Fall.
Its difficult to say why without giving away a plethora of
spoilers, but I can say that the film hinges upon the most
preposterous of plot contrivances, two extremely idiotic red
herrings, and is utterly bereft of themes which aren't either A)
very confused, B) contrivedly misanthropic, or C) trite and not
meaningfully presented (as opposed to films which are trite but
at least have some emotional heft).
The acting is quite good, but it isn't good enough to be worth
putting up with the content.
Mine is a minority opinion, since the film is getting great
reviews and word of mouth, but if you see it, obey the tagline
and "look closer" and you will see that there isn't
much to look at.
Blech.
