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 Film Review 


American Beauty

American beauty is a romantic drama about a middle aged man who becomes obsessed with his teenage daughters best friend. The main character, Lester, has a seemingly perfect life with a successful wife and daughter. throughout the movie we discover Lester has a terrible relationship with his wife and daughter this causes friction and a poor family dynamic. Carolyn Burnham (Lester's wife) is shown to be a perfectionist who is often stressed with work, the movie also portrays that Lester and Carolyn have grown to become bitter towards each other and they often fight, Their daughter Jane has a poor relationship with her parents because they are so focused on their own problems they forget about her, Jane joins the cheerleading team with her friend Angela, Lester and Carolyn go to watch the school game to support Jane, Lester notices Angela and becomes obsessed with her and attracted to her. Throughout the movie Lester has sexual dreams about Angela and fantasises about being with her. Lester quits his successful job as we can see him become more and more depressed, he then goes for a job at a fast food restaurant which he inevitably gets due to his qualifications. Carolyn becomes more and more stressed ,due to Lester quitting his job, and confides in a work colleague called Buddy Kane. Carolyn then starts having an affair with him. Meanwhile, Jane becomes friends with the families creepy neighbour Ricky Fitts, Angela bullies her for it as he is seen as weird and an outcast, Jane doesn't care and becomes close with him. Ricky likes photography and films Jane topless. Jane and Ricky become romantically involved and we discover Rickys dad is a Colonel who physically abuses him, it also revealed that Ricky got in trouble for dealing and smoking weed. Ricky then starts dealing to Lester. Lester also plans to get fit to impress Angela. On another day Jane tells Ricky that she wants to kill her dad. Ricky gives Lester weed and Rickys dad catches them through a window but internets it in a different and believes Lester is paying Ricky for sex. Ricky and Jane plan to run away together, Carolyn also plans to leave Lester to be with Buddy. Frank confronts Lester but we then discover that Frank is Gay and was insecure about it and didn't want Ricky to be gay. Lester denies Franks advances and leaves the garage. Jane and Ricky confront Angela for being a bad friend and for flirting with Lester, Angela then confides in Lester and they end up kissing, Lester and Angela almost have sex but when Angela reveals she's a virgin Lester stops and apologises and covers her up to make her more comfortable, Angela leaves to go to the bathroom after talking to Lester. We then see Lester looking at a picture of him Jane and Carolyn as a gun enters the frame, the camera pans away as Lester gets shoot in the back of the head and the audience see a blood splatter on the wall. The audience don't know who shot Lester. Ricky and Jane find him dead. Then we discover it was Frank who shot Lester.


A key scene in the Movie is when Lester sees Angela for the first time dancing. The camera pans up the line of dancers and then zooms into Angela who is at the top of the line, this shows the audience where Lester is focusing. The mid shot of Angela dancing allows us to see most of her body and her facial expressions, this means we can understand Angela as a character more and we can see her status in the movie, being that Lester sees her as a potential love interest.The zoom into Lester's face and his facial expressions show he is mesmerised by Angelas beauty and the way she is dancing. The spotlight on Angela puts the audiences focus onto her and shows us how Lester sees Angela. The close up of Lester's face also shows the audience Lester's attracting boards Angela. Angela is then dancing on her and the other dancers have disappeared this is showing the audience what Lester sees and how he's blinded by love and attraction for her, Angela also starts dancing in a more provocative way which also shows the audience Lester's fantasies and dreams about Angela. The mid shot of Angelas torso are meant to highlight her beauty and show how Lester sees her, this also sexualises her and shows her power of Lester due to him being so attracted to her. There is also a Long shot of Lester who is left of the frame and is alone under spotlight, this allows us to see how he feels like the only man in the room.                                   

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