13th Favorite Movie - American Beauty

Make sure you have read the first post in this series ("My 50 Favorite Movies") before you read on...

The tagline found on posters and billboards for American Beauty was "look closer". These two words beckoned the viewer to look past what they may first see on the surface for something deeper, something hidden underneath. Unfortunately, many people missed it. Granted, this is a seedy film, a dark film, and a challenging film. But there is profound truth to be found here.

On the surface, the suburban family that is at the center of American Beauty seems to be idyllic. Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening play two married, "successful" parents, with a healthy teenage daughter... but underneath there is conflict waiting to boil over, pain that has not been addressed, dreams that have not been pursued. After first seeing them as an ideal family... then seeing them as a horrible one... writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes pull the carpet out from under your feet again, showing you the heart of each of the characters and the beauty that exists there.

I like finding beauty where it is least expected. I get a kick out of finding something true, something lovely, in people, songs, books, movies (like this one) or anything that others have written off as having no redeeming qualities. And that is a major theme of this movie. Finding God in the ordinary, or in the mess. One scene in the movie is of one teenager showing a friend a video he took of a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Here is what he says:

"It was one of those days when it's a minute away from snowing and there's this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it, right? And this bag was like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever."

But the movie is not just about the relationship between people and God, it is also about how we treat one another. At one point someone asks Kevin Spacey's character "how are you?" and he stops and thinks for a moment and says, "It's been a long time since anybody asked me that." It is really sad that his wife, daughter, co-workers and friends never stopped to ask how he was doing and took time to listen. This film is about how we need other people in our lives. The first line of the movie is a teenage girl, looking directly into the camera, saying, "I need a father who's a role model..."

It is also about the relationship between us and our "stuff", and how if we are not careful, our possessions will end up possessing us. In one scene, Annette Bening's character interrupts a rare romantic moment with her husband to scold him because he is about to spill beer on the couch. His response: "This (couch) isn't life. This is just stuff. And it's become more important to you than living. Well, honey, that's just nuts." Truth from an unlikely source.

Covenant pastor and Fuller Seminary professor Robert Johnston wrote an entire book comparing the message of American Beauty and other movies to the message of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. It is called Useless Beauty: Ecclesasiastes through the Lens of Contemporary Film and is available on Amazon. Somehow I don't own this book... yet.