The story described a "weird" joyless American middle-class family and the death of Lester Burnham.
Lester Burnham, who is in his middle age live a boring life. he doesn't have a "successful" job, doesn't have passion for life and doesn't even have good relationship with his wife Carolyn and his daughter Jane. In a way he's dead already.
Carolyn, a women desires to be successful but always fails in her career, acts strong but inside weak. She's just some money-grabbing freak, as many people are. "In order to be successful, one must project an image of success at all times." is what she believed, which in fact destroyed her whole life.
Their 17 year old daughter Jane is a typical teenager, angry, insecure, confused. She has no confidence in herself, always thinks she's not pretty. and she has cold relationship with her family.
Jane's friend, Angela, is a kid with flashy appearance. "there's nothing worse in life than being ordinary" is her twisted values. she is proud and refuses to be ordinary but this can cover her ordinary mind.
Jane's nextdoor neighboor, Ricky fall in love with Jane. He always use DV to record some strange things----in his eyes they're beautiful. Ricky makes money through dealing drugs.
Ricky's father, an extremely strict old man who hates homosexuality to death, hides the truth that he himself is a gay.
We can feel that the conversations between these people is full of meaning, words are selected and emotions are real to life. Every character is so typical that we can actually realize such people do exist around us. maybe we're just one of them. Due to their personalities, the tragic story happened...
Lester saw Angela and he's totally obsessed with her beauty at once. " I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up. " He started to make a change and live like what he wants. On the surface we would think that Lester changed because he wants to win Angela, but his obsession about Angela is in fact the desire of beauty, which is just a symbol of fresh exciting lifestyle. Quitting the bored job and getting a new one at a drive-in, doing physical exercises, listening to rock music and smoking dope turned Lester's dark life to a bright one. Rebirth is how he feels. Meanwhile, his wife and daughter couldn't understand him, which makes the story more ironic. ...the death of Lester Burnham is the biggest irony in the whole movie. The gigantic "loser" becomed a real hero of his own life in the end! He was the only one who gave himself a chance to start a new life and live a colorful life. Nobody else did. But at last he was dead. That is exactly what black humor all about.
Who in reality have the guts to change their everyday life? Who would give themselves a new try? Who dare to challenge what most people against? Few people do i believe. Maybe that's the reason why Lester Burnham is written dead in the end. There's no such hero in our reality.
American Beauty not only shows an ironic reflection of "American dream"'s life but also tells us that there's beauty everywhere. That's one of the reasons i love this movie!
There's one scene that Ricky shows Jane a 15 minutes short movie he shoot. It was just a plastic bag floating in the sky, flying as the wind blowing. But in Ricky's eyes ----
" this bag was, like, dancing with me. Like a little kid begging me to play with it. For fifteen minutes. And that's the day I knew there was this entire life behind things, and... this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid, ever. Video's a poor excuse, I know. But it helps me remember... and I need to remember... Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in."
As Ricky saying these words, a light blue melody flows out slowly. His eyes are clear and shiny like there're some tears in them. So beautiful...
The end of movie is the most touching part. Lester finally find out the most important in his life is his daughter, his family. He gently held the photo of his happy family, stared at the three people on it, whispered to himself and sunk into the memory of the past with a smile on his wrinkle face. At this time, GUNSHOT! Lester fell down in blood. Surprisingly, we don't see dead people's scary face but a tender face, still, smiling... now he must be in his happiest moment.
"I had always heard your entire life flashes in front of your eyes the second before you die. First of all, that one second isn't a second at all, it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time... For me, it was lying on my back at Boy Scout camp, watching falling stars... And yellow leaves, from the maple trees, that lined my street... Or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper... And the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new Firebird... And Janie... And Janie... And... Carolyn. I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday. " ---the end