American Beauty

American Beauty is a film from 1999 that embodies the dysfunctional beauty of one family, and relates it to the overall American cultural experience. The main character, Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), sees no point to his existence: he is in a trying relationship with his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening); he barely talks to his daughter Jane (Thora Birch); and he has been put under fire at work. After a series of occurrences in his life such as meeting his new neighbor Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) smoking some pot, and becoming captivated by Jane's high school classmate Angela (Mena Suvari), Lester undergoes a remarkable transformation and decides to stop being a conformist. He quits his job, much to the irritation of his wife, and begins to work at a Burger King.

There is a great deal of suspense in this story line of this film: we are give the ending right at the beginning: that Lester will be dead in a year's time. However, how and why this is the case isn't revealed until the very last minute. The movie tries to tell us that conforming to a lifestyle dictated by society leads to dysfunctionality. But finding freedom as illustrated in the film isn't exactly great either.

As the movie proceeds, each of the characters experience a transformation that breaks them out of their rut and enables them to advance to the next level of existence. Each transformation is characterized by the movement between living a routine life and living a dynamic life, where everything is uncertain. At the end, only Lester has found true freedom. Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), the homophobic father of Ricky is left to confront his own issues; Jane and Ricky move away to become professional drug dealers; Carolyn's transformation leaves her alone; and there is nothing to fix Angela's insecurity.

Repetition in American Beauty

Sam Mende’s film American Beauty takes place in a boring monotonous suburb. It is fitting then that the film features so much repetition. The first scenes are almost all repeated later in the film with a different twist on them.  For instance, the family is seen at the dinner table in the beginning eating quietly and the same shot with the exact same framing comes up later in the film but this time they get into a huge argument that ends with plates being thrown against the wall.

The small differences in these scenes speak volumes. Lester’s clothing is more relaxed in the second scene, he is drinking a beer, not wine, the red roses on the table have been replaced by an empty bowl. These two shots side by side tell the whole story, even though they are essentially the same  basic shot.

Another place repetition comes in is in Lester’s fantasies about Angela in which jump cuts and repetition of shots establish these sequences as existing only in Lester’s mind. The music is similarly repetitive with percussive rhythms that repeat over and over. These sequences also repeat several times in the film, notably scenes in which Angela is covered in red roses or has red roses coming out of her etc. as seen in the video below, which illustrates all of these points.

The repetition in this film serves to both establish the boring, sameness of life in an American suburb as well as to show the excitement of Lester’s voyeuristic fantasies.