American beauty

1999 USA Color 121 minutes

Photo of Mena SuvariPhoto of Wes BentleyPhoto of Thora Birch

Review

Smile! You're at Mr. Smiley's

Kevin SpaceyLester Burnham (Kevin Spacey ) is a telemarketer, trapped in a cube and saddled with a little phone headset. At heart, he's lost and searching for meaning in his well-appointed but empty life. His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening) is a woman so obsessed with appearances that she matches the color of her shoes and her hedge clippers. Their daughter Jane (Thora Birch), is emotionally removed from them and is just serving time until she can escape her homelife.

Photo of Annette Bening But then Lester becomes obsessed with Angela (Mena Suvari), Jane's best friend, and decides (after blackmailing his boss) to change his life. The new neighbour Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley) confuses things even more. He is a troubled soul who pines for Jane and is befriended by her increasingly unstable father. All hell breaks lose in the family as carefully constructed illusions about their lives fall apart.

Cast

Directed by Sam Mendes

Links and more

Listen to: Being ordinary (Small mp3 file, 31kb) Being ordinary
Listen to: In a coma for the past twenty years (Small mp3 file, 39kb) In a coma for the past twenty years
Listen to: Sell this house (Small mp3 file, 31kb) Sell this house
Screenplay

 

Photo of Mena Suvari

News

Kevin Spacey

Congratulations
This month it will be Kevin Spacey`s 49th birthday. (July 26, 1959)
(Lester Burnham)

Trivia

Release date: September 8, 1999

The movie was shot in Sacramento, California. The Burnham family house and their neighbors house were build in a studio backlot.

Oscars:
Best Actor in a Leading Role -> Kevin Spacey
Best Director -> Sam Mendes
Best Cinematography
Best Picture
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen ->Alan Ball

Oscar nominations:
Best Actress in a Leading Role -> Annette Bening
Best Editing
Best Music, Original Score

Thora Birch was only 17, so filming her brief nude scene required permission from her parents.

The end credits extend special thanks to Dr. Bill & Alice. This is a reference to Eyes Wide Shut (1999), whose female lead, Nicole Kidman, appeared on stage in The Blue Room, also directed by Sam Mendes.

The American beauty rose was once popular but is no longer grown commercially. It was favored by first-generations Italians. An arrangement of American Beauty roses was made for the maid of honor in The Godfather during Connie’s wedding ceremony. Source / More (Book)

Bio

Kevin Spacey

Kevin Spacey

Congratulations, this week it's Kevin's 49th birthday.I don't give a toss what people think.
It's my dream

Remarkable:

Kevin has a star on Hollywood Boulevard.
It’s located between Highland avenue and Orange Drive.

Born:

July 26, 1959

Born as:

Kevin Spacey Fowler

Spacey grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. He enrolled at the Chatsworth High School where he managed to channel his dramatic tendencies into a successful amateur acting career. Kevin signed up with the New York Shakespeare Festival and his first professional stage appearance was as a messenger in the 1981 production of Henry VI.

Spacey's film career began modestly with a sinister office manager in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992). 1995 proved to be a groundbreaking year for Kevin with the smooth-talking eyewitness Verbal Kint in The Usual Suspects and the gritty and violent thriller Seven. In 1999, just four days after American Beauty (1999) opened in US theaters, Spacey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Kevin moved in 2003 to London, England, to become the artistic director of the Old Vic, one of the city's oldest theatres. Kevin's next movie's will be Edison (Summer 2005) and the Superman sequel Superman returns, due out in 2006. He is reunited with director Bryan Singer (The usual suspects).

Academy awards:

2000 Won Best Actor for: American Beauty (1999)
1996 Won Best Actor for: The usual suspects (1995)

Selected Movies: