American Beauty

Lester Burnham (Spacey) is a suburban father and husband who simmers on the edge of a nervous breakdown and finally snaps when he realises how much he hates his stale, repetitive existence.

This, as he tells us at the beginning in the voice-over narration, is the day that he dies.

After leaving his job he begins a regression into young adulthood, lifting weights, smoking pot, and lazing around.

Much to the disgust of his teenage daughter Jane (Birch), he discovers a taste for younger women, in particular 16 year old Jane's best friend, Angela (Suvari).

In addition to the already chaotic household, Lester's wife Carolyn (Bening) embarks on her own wanderings into rejuvenation.

Jane's life is also in turmoil. Apart from the humiliation of her parents' descent into lunacy, she is taking the first tentative steps towards love with Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), the strange boy next door who carries a video camera around with him at all times.

The situation becomes more sinister when Ricky's militaristic and homophobic father (Chris Cooper) discovers something he doesn't like the look of on one of his sons videotapes...

Before it's possible to review this film, it must first be made known that Steven Spielberg read the script on a Saturday, and DreamWorks was given the green light to proceed with production on the Monday morning - it was to be shot without a single word being changed.

The powerhouse character actors were recruited almost immediately and production began promptly. This simply doesn't happen in Hollywood.

The impact that the script made on Spielberg was the same instantaneous mesmerising effect that this modern day classic has had on audiences around the world.

The hollow space behind The American Dream; the darker side of suburbia; stale marriages; homophobia; male empowerment; self discovery; infidelity; teen angst - the themes explored in incredible depth in this film are countless.

This multi-Oscar winning film doesn't pull any punches. The audience must prepare to be shocked, disturbed and most importantly moved to change their perceptions of their own existence.

Bening is outstanding as the obsessive materialistic Carolyn, whose ambition and perfectionism is tinged with a deadly narcissism.

The black humour in the film centres around her and Spacey's characters and her insight into the American ideal family life and it's hidden frustrations creates a convincingly neurotic, impulsive and self-destructive protagonist.

Spacey can do no wrong. After The Usual Suspects, who would have thought he could be stretched any further? His role in American Beauty proves to be the mark of a true actor.

He rocks the screen with scintillating comic timing whilst tugging at the audiences heartstrings with a beautifully understated sadness.

Never patronising to his younger and less experienced co-stars, he gels the cast together to create a stunning ensemble piece in which he stands out as one of the most superb characters in movie history.

The film is stunningly poignant, and when first time cinema director Mendes turns his hands to the serious aspects of the disintegration of human souls, the funny lurches to the profound with hardly a flicker of disruption.

The dialogue races from the chilling to the hysterical and the characters carry the plot without the need for effects of any kind. The off-balance community speak for itself.

This film is liberating. It has left audiences reeling and contemplating our civilised lives.

It asks us to ask ourselves: What is happiness? What is success? And why is it that so many of us exhaust ourselves working for both, only to find that they aren't at all what we expected?

Natalie Stone