"Remember those posters that said, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life"? Well, that's true of every day but one - the day you die."

A husband and a father, Lester Burnham is getting deeper and deeper into a depression, until he has a mid-life crisis after getting infatuated with his daughter's best friend.

I had heard about American Beauty for the first time a long, long time ago. I've probably been aware of it's existence since it came. Of course I wasn't really interested until I started liking drama. I've also have had it for a while, waiting to be watched. Why I chose it tonight, I have no idea.

First of all American Beauty made me feel a bit uneasy about older man liking a minor. just like Down In The Valley made me feel uneasy. However in American Beauty the age difference was much clearer, and it was sort of the point. That's why Lester Burnham kind of got his mid-life crisis and suddenly also grew a backbone. But still in movies like this the infatuation, was it mutual or not, is most of the time really, really creepy.

There was something weirdly similar in American Beauty to Fight Club. The biggest similarity was of course the scene where Lester Burnham quits his job, when he blackmails the boss and gets one year salary and benefits. It's very similar where The Narrator in Fight Club tries to get paid even though he wouldn't be actually working for the company anymore - and then he beats himself up and pretends his boss did that. And partly the philosophy that Fight Club has is also present in American Beauty. The difference is, that American Beauty isn't yelling it at the viewer's face. And of course it might be hard to see that in American Beauty if you're not familiar with Fight Club.

One thing I liked was how you can't really deduce how much time do the events take. It's said in the beginning though, about how long it's going to be until the Burnham dies, but still it's hard to say how much time has passed since that and that scene. But then again in the beginning Burnham narrates and says, "in less than a year". How much is less than a year? Seasons don't really change, not the way you could guess how much time has passed. And I really like this in a movie. It's better than knowing that exctly 1,4 days after, etcetera.

The acting was very good in this movie, so was directing and editing. The story however... it was well written, and had some parts that were really brilliant, and the writing made American Beauty very quotable movie. And well, it was decent. I was maybe waiting for something more, and I think the end was made too long, there was a moment where it could've ended, and then it would've been perfect. But I guess this is the problem with popular movies that are often thought as magnificent - you expect too much of them, and they don't live up to your expectations. 

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

7 / 10