Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
Boldly challenging our sympathies, [Lester] somehow wins them because, to borrow a phrase, he's a man in full.
– Richard Schickel,
TIME Magazine,
28 Jan 2014
rotten:
[The filmmakers'] attacks on real-estate agents, corporate America and suburbia aren't so much shooting fish in a barrel as they are shooting fish in a shallow dish.
– Jay Boyar,
Orlando Sentinel,
28 Jan 2014
fresh:
American Beauty approaches a manic, almost cartoonish edge without falling over. Both Spacey and Bening use extraordinary comic timing to bring these very sad, lost characters to life.
– Jami Bernard,
New York Daily News,
28 Jan 2014
fresh:
Alan Ball's script is a terrific piece of material, and Mendes responds directly to its subversive, provocative vision of a curdled American Dream.