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* [[spoiler:HeKnowsTooMuch: Col. Fitts kills Lester to keep his homosexuality a secret.]]
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** It's arguably played with; Lester ultimately seems rather indifferent to the affair itself, and wasn't so much happy for his wife finding happiness with someone else as he was delighted at being able to experience a bit of ''schedenfreude'' at seeing his wife, who had adopted a superior-than-thou attitude towards him and pretty much everyone throughout the movie (at least in public) being brought down a peg or two in a rather publicly humiliating fashion through being exposed as an adulteress.
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** It's arguably played with; Lester ultimately seems rather indifferent to the affair itself, and wasn't so much happy for his wife finding happiness with someone else as he was delighted at being able to experience a bit of ''schedenfreude'' at seeing his wife, who had adopted a superior-than-thou attitude towards him and pretty much everyone throughout the movie (at least in public) being brought down a peg or two in a rather publicly humiliating fashion through being exposed as an adulteress.adulteress in front of him and everyone he worked with.
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** It's arguably played with; Lester ultimately seems rather indifferent to the affair itself, and wasn't so much happy for his wife finding happiness with someone else as he was delighted at being able to experience a bit of ''schedenfreude'' at seeing his wife, who had adopted a superior-than-thou attitude towards him and pretty much everyone throughout the movie (at least in public) being brought down a peg or two in a rather publicly humiliating fashion through being exposed as an adulteress.
--->'''Lester:''' You don't get to tell me what to do ever again.
--->'''Lester:''' You don't get to tell me what to do ever again.
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Typo.
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* FirstLawOfTragicomedies: While not completely unserious, the movie begins with a somewhat lighthearted / saracastic nature, but the film starts to develop a more serious tone later on.
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* FirstLawOfTragicomedies: While not completely unserious, the movie begins with a somewhat lighthearted / saracastic sarcastic nature, but the film starts to develop a more serious tone later on.
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** Ricky = Richard = Dick. DickAndJane.
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** Ricky = Richard = Dick. DickAndJane.''Literature/DickAndJane''.
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not played for laughs in the movie
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** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "And you should see me fuck. I'm the best piece of ass in three states!"]]
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* GaussianGirl: Angela in Lester's fantasies about her.
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Beauty is YMMV. It certainly shows she has her guard down, though.
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* LettingHerHairDown: When Jane shows Ricky her breasts, she lets her hair down first and is much more beautiful because of it. She is also shown with her hair down when she and Ricky have their intimate scene.
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* LettingHerHairDown: When Jane shows Ricky her breasts, she lets her hair down first and is much more beautiful because of it.first. She is also shown with her hair down when she and Ricky have their intimate scene.
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-->''[[{{Tagline}} ...look closer.]]''
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* AccidentalInnuendo: ''PlayedForDrama''. [[spoiler:When Col. Fitts wanders over in the rain, Lester's dialogue confirm his (mistaken) perception that Lester is, like Fitts himself, a closeted gay man. This leads to the shooting at the end.]]
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* OneDialogueTwoConversations[=/=]AccidentalInnuendo: ''PlayedForDrama''. [[spoiler:When Col. Fitts wanders over in the rain, Lester's dialogue confirm his (mistaken) perception that Lester is, like Fitts himself, a closeted gay man. This leads to the shooting at the end.]]
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* [[spoiler:TheHeroDies: Lester himself at the end.]]
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* HappilyMarried: They're not actually married, but Jim and Jim are the only couple (and characters, for that matter) in the film who are truly ordinary, happy and healthy.
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Sliding Scale Of Antiheroes was redirected. Deleting wicks to it, Anti Hero Zero Context Examples and \"Type X\" junk
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* AntiHero ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]): Lester Burnham.
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A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball (''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood'') and director SamMendes. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar here.
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A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball (''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood'') and director SamMendes. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey KevinSpacey won his second Oscar here.
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* '''Lester Burnham''' (Kevin Spacey), a HenpeckedHusband and personality-less advertising-magazine wage slave who feels trapped in a shallow and meaningless life. He is the film's [[PosthumousNarration Posthumous Narrator]] and main character, and the story concerns his efforts to find happiness. "Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser... and they're right."
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* '''Lester Burnham''' (Kevin Spacey), (KevinSpacey), a HenpeckedHusband and personality-less advertising-magazine wage slave who feels trapped in a shallow and meaningless life. He is the film's [[PosthumousNarration Posthumous Narrator]] and main character, and the story concerns his efforts to find happiness. "Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser... and they're right."
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* TitleDrop: A non-verbal example with the "American Beauty" rose being prominently featured (see Flower Motifs above)
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** This completely shuts Angela down.
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** This completely shuts Angela down.down into a crying fit in the Burnham living room. [[ChekhovsGun She even said earlier that "there's nothing worse in life than being ordinary."]]
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*BoringInsult:
-->'''Angela''':''"Well, at least I'm not ugly."''
-->'''Ricky''':''"... Yes, you are. And you're boring. And you're totally ordinary. And you know it."''
**This completely shuts Angela down.
-->'''Angela''':''"Well, at least I'm not ugly."''
-->'''Ricky''':''"... Yes, you are. And you're boring. And you're totally ordinary. And you know it."''
**This completely shuts Angela down.
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A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball and director SamMendes, thus giving us, at a stroke: ''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood''; ''RoadToPerdition'', ''{{Jarhead}}'', ''RevolutionaryRoad'' and ''AwayWeGo''. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar here.
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A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball (''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood'') and director SamMendes, thus giving us, at a stroke: ''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood''; ''RoadToPerdition'', ''{{Jarhead}}'', ''RevolutionaryRoad'' and ''AwayWeGo''.SamMendes. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar here.
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Almost none of these characters are who they appear to be. The Burnhams evolve, while others are simply turned around on a single WhamLine.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.
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Almost none of these characters are who they appear to be. The Burnhams evolve, spiraling in and out of happiness as the film progresses, while others are simply turned around on a single WhamLine.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.WhamLine.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.
* AccidentalInnuendo: ''PlayedForDrama''. [[spoiler:When Col. Fitts wanders over in the rain, Lester's dialogue confirm his (mistaken) perception that Lester is, like Fitts himself, a closeted gay man. This leads to the shooting at the end.]]
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* BitchAlert: Carolyn. Her first lines to her daughter are "are you trying to look unattractive today?" and her idea of congratulating her on her routine is "you didn't screw up once".
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* BitchAlert: Carolyn. Her first lines to her daughter are "are you trying to look unattractive today?" and her idea of congratulating her on her routine is is, "you didn't screw up once".once!"
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* RedHerring: Throughout the movie we are led to believe that [[spoiler:Lester's wife (or maybe Ricky) killed him]].
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* RedHerring: Throughout the movie we are led to believe that [[spoiler:Lester's wife (or maybe Ricky) Ricky)]] killed him]].him.
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* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].
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* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].[[spoiler:Inverted with Col. Fitts: You Hate What You Are.]]
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/menaAmericanBeauty_5863.jpg]]
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* HomageShot: To ''OrdinaryPeople'' during the dinner scene.
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* HomageShot: To ''OrdinaryPeople'' ''Literature/OrdinaryPeople'' during the dinner scene.
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moving
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* DyeingForYourArt: Kevin Spacey actually did bulk up that much.
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** Carolyn desperately embracing Lester's shirts is one to TheGreatGatsby.
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** The scene where Lester attacks Carolyn's feet with a remote control car was also unscripted, and Annette Bening's surprise and annoyance are a real reaction.
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* '''Buddy Kane''' (Peter Gallagher), Carolyn's main business rival, the self-styled "King of Real Estate." He's powerful, success-minded, has enormously charismatic eyebrows, and appeals to her StepfordSmiler instincts: "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." Eventually, the two of them start an affair. He also introduces Carolyn to the shooting range, where she picks up a Colt 1911 once owned by a man named [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov]]...
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* '''Buddy Kane''' (Peter Gallagher), Carolyn's main business rival, the self-styled "King of Real Estate." He's powerful, success-minded, has enormously charismatic eyebrows, and appeals to her StepfordSmiler instincts: "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." Eventually, the two of them start an affair. He also introduces Carolyn to the shooting range, where she picks up a Colt 1911 Smith & Wesson once owned by a man named [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov]]...
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Both natter and This Troper
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** A clichéd little model princess is boring also for this troper. Jane was at least a real person. YMMV, naturally.
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** A clichéd little model princess is boring also for this troper. Jane was at least a real person.
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** A clichéd little model princess is boring also for this troper. Jane was at least a real person. YMMV, naturally.
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Fixing namespace.
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* BlackComedy
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* BlackComedy BlackComedy
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* ADateWithRosiePalms:
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* ADateWithRosiePalms: ADateWithRosiePalms:
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* FilleFatale: Subverted, if not full on Deconstructed, with Angela.
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* FilleFatale: Subverted, if not full on Deconstructed, with Angela.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: When Lester is killed.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: When Lester is killed.
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* StalkingIsLove: Played straight with Ricky, although he means no harm, and really does love Jane.
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* StalkingIsLove: Played straight with Ricky, although he means no harm, and really does love Jane.
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** TerryGilliam also turned down the offer to direct this movie.
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** TerryGilliam Creator/TerryGilliam also turned down the offer to direct this movie.
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** A clichéd little model princess is boring also for this troper. Jane was at least a real person.
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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/menaAmericanBeauty_5863.jpg]]
-->''[[{{Tagline}} ...look closer.]]''
A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball and director SamMendes, thus giving us, at a stroke: ''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood''; ''RoadToPerdition'', ''{{Jarhead}}'', ''RevolutionaryRoad'' and ''AwayWeGo''. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar here.
Notable for being a dark, cynical, and dead-funny look at modern suburbia, possibly encouraging the recent trend of [[TrueArtIsAngsty arty/angsty]], relatively-obscure dramas getting all the Best Picture nods. It's also notable for juggling a ton of characters, ''successfully'', where most films top out at three or four.
As to the plot, the opening narration tells it all:
--> "[[VerbalBusinessCard My name is Lester Burnham]]. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year, [[ForegoneConclusion I'll be dead]].
--> "...Of course, I don't know that yet. And, in a way, I'm dead already."
[[AC:The characters in the film:]]
* '''Lester Burnham''' (Kevin Spacey), a HenpeckedHusband and personality-less advertising-magazine wage slave who feels trapped in a shallow and meaningless life. He is the film's [[PosthumousNarration Posthumous Narrator]] and main character, and the story concerns his efforts to find happiness. "Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser... and they're right."
* '''Carolyn Burnham''' (Annette Bening), his wife, head of a real-estate firm and a StepfordSmiler of alarming caliber. "My company sells an image. It's part of my job to live that image."
* '''Jane Burnham''' (ThoraBirch), their daughter of sixteen years. "Janie's a pretty typical teenager: angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass... but I don't want to lie to her." She resents the way her father has begun to withdraw from her, and, in the very first scene of the movie, takes someone up on an offer to murder him.
* '''Angela Hayes''' (Mena Suvari), who is on the cheerleading team with Jane and quickly becomes the object of Lester's fantasies, causing him to start an intensive work-out regimen in an attempt to seduce her. She acts more worldly and [[ReallyGetsAround experienced]] than Jane, and isn't afraid to use her body to advantage: "If people I don't even know look at me and want to fuck me, it means... I really have a shot at being a model!"
* '''Ricky Fitts''' (Wes Bentley), the new next-door neighbor to the Burnhams and Jane's eventual love interest. He is a weird combination of StalkerWithACrush, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and ShroudedInMyth (in regards to where he was before he moved here), and [[OnlySaneMan sees more clearly]] than anyone else in the cast. He is an experienced dealer of marijuana, becoming Lester's supplier, and carries a video camera everywhere to record interesting moments out of his life. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just think you're interesting."
* '''Buddy Kane''' (Peter Gallagher), Carolyn's main business rival, the self-styled "King of Real Estate." He's powerful, success-minded, has enormously charismatic eyebrows, and appeals to her StepfordSmiler instincts: "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." Eventually, the two of them start an affair. He also introduces Carolyn to the shooting range, where she picks up a Colt 1911 once owned by a man named [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov]]...
* '''Col. Frank Fitts, [[SemperFi USMC]]''' (Chris Cooper), a now-inactive Marine who fought in Vietnam. He's trying to raise Ricky in his own image ("[[CatchPhrase You need structure... you need discipline]]"), which is meeting with limited success. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment He's also a flaming homophobe]].
* '''Barbara Fitts''' (Allison Janney), the colonel's [[ExtremeDoormat silent, disjointed wife]]. She doesn't get many scenes, but Janney uses even her character's silence to communicate that there are some severe repression problems going on here.
* '''Jim Berkley''' (Sam Robards) and '''Jim Olmeyer''' (Scott Bakula), a gay couple who are the Burnhams' next-door neighbors on the other side. Bakula has joked that these are the most normal people in the film -- and the thing is, he's right. They help Lester develop his new work-out regimen.
Almost none of these characters are who they appear to be. The Burnhams evolve, while others are simply turned around on a single WhamLine.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* ACupAngst: Jane is looking up breast augmentation on the internet early in the movie. Inexplicable, as we see later in the film that she's quite amply endowed.
* AdoptTheDog: Lester holds back from [[spoiler:taking the girl of his dreams]].
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Played straight with Lester's attraction to Angela, and subverted by Ricky's attitude towards her. Double subverted then since Jane is also a cheerleader (although not a stereotypically blonde one).
* AmericanTitle: Of the ironic variety.
* AntiHero ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]): Lester Burnham.
* ArmouredClosetGay: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].
* BigOlEyebrows: Buddy Kane. DVDCommentary claims that cast and crew were occasionally mesmerized.
** Ricky.
* BitchAlert: Carolyn. Her first lines to her daughter are "are you trying to look unattractive today?" and her idea of congratulating her on her routine is "you didn't screw up once".
* BlackComedy
* CameraFiend: Angela thinks Ricky is this but he films Jane because he thinks she's interesting, and stops when she asks him to. The scene where Jane strips off for him on camera points this out as, while she is topless, Ricky is pointing the camera at her eyes because of her expression.
* CastingCouch: Angela boasts of sleeping with a photographer to enhance her modeling career. [[spoiler: Turns out she was lying]].
* ChivalrousPervert: Lester's obsession over Angela is pretty {{squick}}-inducing, but when he actually has a chance to fulfill his fantasy [[spoiler:he stops once he realizes that for all her bravado Angela is still an inexperienced little girl]].
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mrs. Fitts.
* ADateWithRosiePalms:
-->'''Lester''': "Look at me, jerking off in the shower... This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here."
** His wife also catches him in bed. "Lester, are you masturbating?!"
* DeadpanSnarker: Lester especially, but sometimes Carolyn and Jane as well.
* DyeingForYourArt: Kevin Spacey actually did bulk up that much.
* DysfunctionJunction: Pretty much everyone except Lester, Ricky, and Jane is horribly insecure, and those three exceptions are still a bit weird.
** And, actually, the entire point of Jane's character arc is that she has a horrifically poor self-image at the beginning. It does improve throughout the movie.
* EnforcedMethodActing / ThrowItIn: Spacey was only supposed to drop the plate in the dinner scene, but he wasn't getting the right reaction, so after a few takes, he threw the plate against the wall as hard as he could.
* FauxYay: Ricky sarcastically claims to be a prostitute who services other men when his father tells him that he would rather him dead than homosexual.
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "And you should see me fuck. I'm the best piece of ass in three states!"]]
* FilleFatale: Subverted, if not full on Deconstructed, with Angela.
* FirstLawOfTragicomedies: While not completely unserious, the movie begins with a somewhat lighthearted / saracastic nature, but the film starts to develop a more serious tone later on.
* FlowerMotifs: Roses and rose petals occur throughout the film, of the variety known as [[MeaningfulName Rosa 'American Beauty']].
* ForegoneConclusion
* GoOutWithASmile
* GoryDiscretionShot: When Lester is killed.
* HaveIMentionedIAmSexuallyActiveToday: [[spoiler: Angela]]
* TheHedonist: Lester Burnham, as he tries to find happiness in his dull life.
* HomageShot: To ''OrdinaryPeople'' during the dinner scene.
* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: When Carolyn catches Lester masturbating: "Oh, all right! So shoot me, I was whacking off! That's right, I was choking the bishop, chafing the carrot, you know, saying "hi" to my monster!"
* IfYouCanReadThis: There's a sign in Lester's cubicle at work that simply reads "Look Closer." This was just something the set designer just felt like decorating the set with. Director Sam Mendes noticed this after seeing the footage in the editing room, and the phrase "Look Closer" would eventually become the movie's tagline.
* InformedAbility: Ricky says Jane is interesting, as opposed to Angela who is boring and "totally ordinary", though while onscreen, Angela's character, an aspiring model, is much more day-seizing and dynamic (or at least her stories are) than Jane who mostly just complains about her parents or serves as an audience/conversation partner for Ricky. Possibly justified in that he is a teen, so someone who will listen to him express his viewpoints is probably pretty interesting. Also, when he calls Angela boring, he also calls her ugly, so he may just have been acting spitefully then.
** He was acting spitefully because Angela's line before that was "Yeah, well at least I'm not ugly."
** He probably meant "[[TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside ugly on the inside]]" rather than ''literally'' ugly.
* InMediasRes
* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: Carolyn spouts this at one point.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Lester's reaction to discovering Carolyn and Buddy's affair.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts after murdering Lester.]]
* KnightTemplar: Col. Fitts, who subjects his own son to urinalysis drug screening.
* LettingHerHairDown: When Jane shows Ricky her breasts, she lets her hair down first and is much more beautiful because of it. She is also shown with her hair down when she and Ricky have their intimate scene.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Lester Burnham, Caroline Burnham, Jane Burnham, Colonel Frank Fitts, Barbara Fitts, Ricky Fitts, Angela Hayes, Buddy Kane, Jim Olmeyer, and Jim Berkley. No, none of these are just filler characters--each of them plays a crucial role in the plot, or in someone else's characterization.
* LonersAreFreaks: Ricky Fitts. Ironically, he is probably the most normal person in the movie.
** Also an Ironic MeaningfulName: Ricky does ''not'' fit. It's not a coincidence that the movie starts when his family moves in next door.
** Ricky's backstory is that he had a fit (flying into a rage and attacking another kid) that landed him in a mental hospital, and his father had a fit when he though Ricky was servicing Lester.
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Lester's CharacterDevelopment arc goes through this and out the other side before being tragically cut short.
* MeaningfulName: Ricky Fitts (see above).
** Jane. Could be a play on Plain Jane, but as Ricky points out, she is beautiful. Opposite of Angela in that she isn't a conventional beauty.
** Ricky = Richard = Dick. DickAndJane.
* NightmareFetishist: Ricky's obsession with "beauty" extends to gazing with fascinated detachment at Lester's corpse lying in a pool of blood.
* NippleAndDimed: It ''is'' an R-rated movie. Subverted by Birch's topless scene, however, which emphasizes her vulnerability over her sexuality. More so with the other eventual nipples on display.
* NoodleIncident: The sycamore tree that Carolyn cut down.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Col. Fitts spies on Ricky and Lester getting high, but their unfortunate placement and movements make it look like something sexual from Col Fitts' POV.
* ObjectTrackingShot: The famous "bag blowing in the wind" scene.
* PosthumousCharacter, providing a...
* ...PosthumousNarration
* PowerHair: One of Carolyn Burnham's numerous ways of "projecting an image of success at all times."
* PunctuatedForEmphasis / PunctuatedPounding: '''"IT'S! JUST! A! COUCH!"'''
** And a more subdued one: "Don't. Interrupt. Me. Honey."
** "That's. What. You. Think!"
* RedHerring: Throughout the movie we are led to believe that [[spoiler:Lester's wife (or maybe Ricky) killed him]].
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: Subverted in the opening: it's actually just a RedHerring.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Mother of... The first shot of Lester at work he's reflected on a computer monitor. The text looks like jail bars. That's just ONE example. The film is ripe for Media classes.
* SexlessMarriage: Lester and Carolyn. As Lester says it: "This hasn't been a marriage, for years, but you were happy as long as I kept my mouth shut. Well guess what, I've changed! And the new me whacks off when he feels horny, because you're obviously not gonna help me out in that department!"
* ShakingHerHairLoose: When Jane strips for Ricky, she unties her hair before taking off her bra.
* ShoutOut / SignificantAnagram: Lester Burnham = [[{{Lolita}} Humbert]] Learns.
** Note also that Angela's surname (Hayes) is homophonous with {{Lolita}}'s surname (Haze).
* SpiritualSuccessor: The film provided much of the inspiration for ''DesperateHousewives'', with its PosthumousNarration and exploration of the darker side of suburbia.
** And it is itself arguably a SpiritualSuccessor of famous "middle-aged adultery" comedies as ''TheSevenYearItch'' and ''10'', albeit much darker than them.
** Little Children could be considered a unofficial SpiritualSuccessor, as it shares the same theme of the dark root of suburbia, albeit with less BlackComedy, and also is scored by Thomas Newman.
* StalkingIsLove: Played straight with Ricky, although he means no harm, and really does love Jane.
* StepfordSmiler: Carolyn. "See how those pruning shears match her gardening clogs? That's not an accident."
* StepfordSuburbia
* StraightGay: The two Jims. [[spoiler: Col. Fitts, a raging homophobe who is actually deeply closeted, doesn't even realize they're gay at first.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Or marriage counselors, apparently.
* ThisLoserIsYou: Lester.
* TookALevelInBadass: Lester after quitting his job, begins working out ... and standing up to his wife.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The screenwriter, Alan Ball, originally wrote ''American Beauty'' for the stage, and in early drafts of the script, there was a prologue and epilogue in which Ricky and Jane are [[spoiler:framed for and]] convicted of Lester's murder.
** Chevy Chase and Jeff Daniels were two initial choices for the role of Lester.
** TerryGilliam also turned down the offer to direct this movie.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "This is my first time."]]
** [[WhamLine Wham Kiss]]
** In-universe but not really to the audience is Lester yelling "sit down!" when Jane tries to leave the dinner table. She and Carolyn are shocked that Lester actually raised his voice.
* WouldHurtAChild: Both Jane and Ricky get hit by their parents in the same scene with the other watching. Carolyn slaps Jane in a moment of rage while Colonel Fitz barges into Ricky's room to hit him for opening his private cabinet.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].
----
-->''[[{{Tagline}} ...look closer.]]''
A dramedy that won the Best Picture Oscar for 2000. It was the break-out film for writer Alan Ball and director SamMendes, thus giving us, at a stroke: ''SixFeetUnder'', ''TrueBlood''; ''RoadToPerdition'', ''{{Jarhead}}'', ''RevolutionaryRoad'' and ''AwayWeGo''. Chris Cooper also got his launch here, and there was great hype for a while about the younger actors, though unfortunately they haven't amounted to all that much since. Finally, Kevin Spacey won his second Oscar here.
Notable for being a dark, cynical, and dead-funny look at modern suburbia, possibly encouraging the recent trend of [[TrueArtIsAngsty arty/angsty]], relatively-obscure dramas getting all the Best Picture nods. It's also notable for juggling a ton of characters, ''successfully'', where most films top out at three or four.
As to the plot, the opening narration tells it all:
--> "[[VerbalBusinessCard My name is Lester Burnham]]. This is my neighborhood; this is my street; this is my life. I am 42 years old; in less than a year, [[ForegoneConclusion I'll be dead]].
--> "...Of course, I don't know that yet. And, in a way, I'm dead already."
[[AC:The characters in the film:]]
* '''Lester Burnham''' (Kevin Spacey), a HenpeckedHusband and personality-less advertising-magazine wage slave who feels trapped in a shallow and meaningless life. He is the film's [[PosthumousNarration Posthumous Narrator]] and main character, and the story concerns his efforts to find happiness. "Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser... and they're right."
* '''Carolyn Burnham''' (Annette Bening), his wife, head of a real-estate firm and a StepfordSmiler of alarming caliber. "My company sells an image. It's part of my job to live that image."
* '''Jane Burnham''' (ThoraBirch), their daughter of sixteen years. "Janie's a pretty typical teenager: angry, insecure, confused. I wish I could tell her that's all going to pass... but I don't want to lie to her." She resents the way her father has begun to withdraw from her, and, in the very first scene of the movie, takes someone up on an offer to murder him.
* '''Angela Hayes''' (Mena Suvari), who is on the cheerleading team with Jane and quickly becomes the object of Lester's fantasies, causing him to start an intensive work-out regimen in an attempt to seduce her. She acts more worldly and [[ReallyGetsAround experienced]] than Jane, and isn't afraid to use her body to advantage: "If people I don't even know look at me and want to fuck me, it means... I really have a shot at being a model!"
* '''Ricky Fitts''' (Wes Bentley), the new next-door neighbor to the Burnhams and Jane's eventual love interest. He is a weird combination of StalkerWithACrush, {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and ShroudedInMyth (in regards to where he was before he moved here), and [[OnlySaneMan sees more clearly]] than anyone else in the cast. He is an experienced dealer of marijuana, becoming Lester's supplier, and carries a video camera everywhere to record interesting moments out of his life. "I didn't mean to scare you. I just think you're interesting."
* '''Buddy Kane''' (Peter Gallagher), Carolyn's main business rival, the self-styled "King of Real Estate." He's powerful, success-minded, has enormously charismatic eyebrows, and appeals to her StepfordSmiler instincts: "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." Eventually, the two of them start an affair. He also introduces Carolyn to the shooting range, where she picks up a Colt 1911 once owned by a man named [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov]]...
* '''Col. Frank Fitts, [[SemperFi USMC]]''' (Chris Cooper), a now-inactive Marine who fought in Vietnam. He's trying to raise Ricky in his own image ("[[CatchPhrase You need structure... you need discipline]]"), which is meeting with limited success. [[EstablishingCharacterMoment He's also a flaming homophobe]].
* '''Barbara Fitts''' (Allison Janney), the colonel's [[ExtremeDoormat silent, disjointed wife]]. She doesn't get many scenes, but Janney uses even her character's silence to communicate that there are some severe repression problems going on here.
* '''Jim Berkley''' (Sam Robards) and '''Jim Olmeyer''' (Scott Bakula), a gay couple who are the Burnhams' next-door neighbors on the other side. Bakula has joked that these are the most normal people in the film -- and the thing is, he's right. They help Lester develop his new work-out regimen.
Almost none of these characters are who they appear to be. The Burnhams evolve, while others are simply turned around on a single WhamLine.
As the film progresses, Lester quits his job (but not before blackmailing his boss into giving him a pension), takes up a new one at a fast food joint, and trades in his sensible Toyota for a [[CoolCar vintage Firebird]] he always wanted as a boy.
----
!!This film provides examples of:
* ACupAngst: Jane is looking up breast augmentation on the internet early in the movie. Inexplicable, as we see later in the film that she's quite amply endowed.
* AdoptTheDog: Lester holds back from [[spoiler:taking the girl of his dreams]].
* AllGuysWantCheerleaders: Played straight with Lester's attraction to Angela, and subverted by Ricky's attitude towards her. Double subverted then since Jane is also a cheerleader (although not a stereotypically blonde one).
* AmericanTitle: Of the ironic variety.
* AntiHero ([[SlidingScaleOfAntiHeroes Type I]]): Lester Burnham.
* ArmouredClosetGay: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].
* BigOlEyebrows: Buddy Kane. DVDCommentary claims that cast and crew were occasionally mesmerized.
** Ricky.
* BitchAlert: Carolyn. Her first lines to her daughter are "are you trying to look unattractive today?" and her idea of congratulating her on her routine is "you didn't screw up once".
* BlackComedy
* CameraFiend: Angela thinks Ricky is this but he films Jane because he thinks she's interesting, and stops when she asks him to. The scene where Jane strips off for him on camera points this out as, while she is topless, Ricky is pointing the camera at her eyes because of her expression.
* CastingCouch: Angela boasts of sleeping with a photographer to enhance her modeling career. [[spoiler: Turns out she was lying]].
* ChivalrousPervert: Lester's obsession over Angela is pretty {{squick}}-inducing, but when he actually has a chance to fulfill his fantasy [[spoiler:he stops once he realizes that for all her bravado Angela is still an inexperienced little girl]].
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mrs. Fitts.
* ADateWithRosiePalms:
-->'''Lester''': "Look at me, jerking off in the shower... This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here."
** His wife also catches him in bed. "Lester, are you masturbating?!"
* DeadpanSnarker: Lester especially, but sometimes Carolyn and Jane as well.
* DyeingForYourArt: Kevin Spacey actually did bulk up that much.
* DysfunctionJunction: Pretty much everyone except Lester, Ricky, and Jane is horribly insecure, and those three exceptions are still a bit weird.
** And, actually, the entire point of Jane's character arc is that she has a horrifically poor self-image at the beginning. It does improve throughout the movie.
* EnforcedMethodActing / ThrowItIn: Spacey was only supposed to drop the plate in the dinner scene, but he wasn't getting the right reaction, so after a few takes, he threw the plate against the wall as hard as he could.
* FauxYay: Ricky sarcastically claims to be a prostitute who services other men when his father tells him that he would rather him dead than homosexual.
** [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "And you should see me fuck. I'm the best piece of ass in three states!"]]
* FilleFatale: Subverted, if not full on Deconstructed, with Angela.
* FirstLawOfTragicomedies: While not completely unserious, the movie begins with a somewhat lighthearted / saracastic nature, but the film starts to develop a more serious tone later on.
* FlowerMotifs: Roses and rose petals occur throughout the film, of the variety known as [[MeaningfulName Rosa 'American Beauty']].
* ForegoneConclusion
* GoOutWithASmile
* GoryDiscretionShot: When Lester is killed.
* HaveIMentionedIAmSexuallyActiveToday: [[spoiler: Angela]]
* TheHedonist: Lester Burnham, as he tries to find happiness in his dull life.
* HomageShot: To ''OrdinaryPeople'' during the dinner scene.
* HurricaneOfEuphemisms: When Carolyn catches Lester masturbating: "Oh, all right! So shoot me, I was whacking off! That's right, I was choking the bishop, chafing the carrot, you know, saying "hi" to my monster!"
* IfYouCanReadThis: There's a sign in Lester's cubicle at work that simply reads "Look Closer." This was just something the set designer just felt like decorating the set with. Director Sam Mendes noticed this after seeing the footage in the editing room, and the phrase "Look Closer" would eventually become the movie's tagline.
* InformedAbility: Ricky says Jane is interesting, as opposed to Angela who is boring and "totally ordinary", though while onscreen, Angela's character, an aspiring model, is much more day-seizing and dynamic (or at least her stories are) than Jane who mostly just complains about her parents or serves as an audience/conversation partner for Ricky. Possibly justified in that he is a teen, so someone who will listen to him express his viewpoints is probably pretty interesting. Also, when he calls Angela boring, he also calls her ugly, so he may just have been acting spitefully then.
** He was acting spitefully because Angela's line before that was "Yeah, well at least I'm not ugly."
** He probably meant "[[TrueBeautyIsOnTheInside ugly on the inside]]" rather than ''literally'' ugly.
* InMediasRes
* InTheEndYouAreOnYourOwn: Carolyn spouts this at one point.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Lester's reaction to discovering Carolyn and Buddy's affair.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts after murdering Lester.]]
* KnightTemplar: Col. Fitts, who subjects his own son to urinalysis drug screening.
* LettingHerHairDown: When Jane shows Ricky her breasts, she lets her hair down first and is much more beautiful because of it. She is also shown with her hair down when she and Ricky have their intimate scene.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Lester Burnham, Caroline Burnham, Jane Burnham, Colonel Frank Fitts, Barbara Fitts, Ricky Fitts, Angela Hayes, Buddy Kane, Jim Olmeyer, and Jim Berkley. No, none of these are just filler characters--each of them plays a crucial role in the plot, or in someone else's characterization.
* LonersAreFreaks: Ricky Fitts. Ironically, he is probably the most normal person in the movie.
** Also an Ironic MeaningfulName: Ricky does ''not'' fit. It's not a coincidence that the movie starts when his family moves in next door.
** Ricky's backstory is that he had a fit (flying into a rage and attacking another kid) that landed him in a mental hospital, and his father had a fit when he though Ricky was servicing Lester.
* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Lester's CharacterDevelopment arc goes through this and out the other side before being tragically cut short.
* MeaningfulName: Ricky Fitts (see above).
** Jane. Could be a play on Plain Jane, but as Ricky points out, she is beautiful. Opposite of Angela in that she isn't a conventional beauty.
** Ricky = Richard = Dick. DickAndJane.
* NightmareFetishist: Ricky's obsession with "beauty" extends to gazing with fascinated detachment at Lester's corpse lying in a pool of blood.
* NippleAndDimed: It ''is'' an R-rated movie. Subverted by Birch's topless scene, however, which emphasizes her vulnerability over her sexuality. More so with the other eventual nipples on display.
* NoodleIncident: The sycamore tree that Carolyn cut down.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Col. Fitts spies on Ricky and Lester getting high, but their unfortunate placement and movements make it look like something sexual from Col Fitts' POV.
* ObjectTrackingShot: The famous "bag blowing in the wind" scene.
* PosthumousCharacter, providing a...
* ...PosthumousNarration
* PowerHair: One of Carolyn Burnham's numerous ways of "projecting an image of success at all times."
* PunctuatedForEmphasis / PunctuatedPounding: '''"IT'S! JUST! A! COUCH!"'''
** And a more subdued one: "Don't. Interrupt. Me. Honey."
** "That's. What. You. Think!"
* RedHerring: Throughout the movie we are led to believe that [[spoiler:Lester's wife (or maybe Ricky) killed him]].
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: Subverted in the opening: it's actually just a RedHerring.
* RuleOfSymbolism: Mother of... The first shot of Lester at work he's reflected on a computer monitor. The text looks like jail bars. That's just ONE example. The film is ripe for Media classes.
* SexlessMarriage: Lester and Carolyn. As Lester says it: "This hasn't been a marriage, for years, but you were happy as long as I kept my mouth shut. Well guess what, I've changed! And the new me whacks off when he feels horny, because you're obviously not gonna help me out in that department!"
* ShakingHerHairLoose: When Jane strips for Ricky, she unties her hair before taking off her bra.
* ShoutOut / SignificantAnagram: Lester Burnham = [[{{Lolita}} Humbert]] Learns.
** Note also that Angela's surname (Hayes) is homophonous with {{Lolita}}'s surname (Haze).
* SpiritualSuccessor: The film provided much of the inspiration for ''DesperateHousewives'', with its PosthumousNarration and exploration of the darker side of suburbia.
** And it is itself arguably a SpiritualSuccessor of famous "middle-aged adultery" comedies as ''TheSevenYearItch'' and ''10'', albeit much darker than them.
** Little Children could be considered a unofficial SpiritualSuccessor, as it shares the same theme of the dark root of suburbia, albeit with less BlackComedy, and also is scored by Thomas Newman.
* StalkingIsLove: Played straight with Ricky, although he means no harm, and really does love Jane.
* StepfordSmiler: Carolyn. "See how those pruning shears match her gardening clogs? That's not an accident."
* StepfordSuburbia
* StraightGay: The two Jims. [[spoiler: Col. Fitts, a raging homophobe who is actually deeply closeted, doesn't even realize they're gay at first.]]
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Or marriage counselors, apparently.
* ThisLoserIsYou: Lester.
* TookALevelInBadass: Lester after quitting his job, begins working out ... and standing up to his wife.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: The screenwriter, Alan Ball, originally wrote ''American Beauty'' for the stage, and in early drafts of the script, there was a prologue and epilogue in which Ricky and Jane are [[spoiler:framed for and]] convicted of Lester's murder.
** Chevy Chase and Jeff Daniels were two initial choices for the role of Lester.
** TerryGilliam also turned down the offer to direct this movie.
* WhamLine: [[spoiler: "This is my first time."]]
** [[WhamLine Wham Kiss]]
** In-universe but not really to the audience is Lester yelling "sit down!" when Jane tries to leave the dinner table. She and Carolyn are shocked that Lester actually raised his voice.
* WouldHurtAChild: Both Jane and Ricky get hit by their parents in the same scene with the other watching. Carolyn slaps Jane in a moment of rage while Colonel Fitz barges into Ricky's room to hit him for opening his private cabinet.
* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler:Col. Fitts]].
----
