The common bond our next two films share is that of suburbia, is that they seemingly focus on normal families going about their daily business. However, the slightest change in circumstance alters the characters in both of these films significantly. Although one film relies a lot more on quirks both look at the stereotypical American family and the cracks that show beneath the surface.
The Burnhams in American Beauty have almost so many cracks that the surface is all but gone. Alan Ball's script focuses on the spiritually dead Lester Burnham who is reawakened by several new faces in his life. The first is his teenage daughter Jane's new friend Angela, whom he has numerous sexual fantasies about and begins to work out after eavesdropping on a conversation between the two girls. Meanwhile, his new neighbour, and Jane's love interest, Ricky Fitts supplies him with marijuana and as a result he regresses into a youthful state. These new changes in her husband's life don't go down too well with his prim and proper realtor wife Carolyn. Carolyn is a very methodical person who likes everything just-so so when Lester resigns from his job her world starts to change too. As Ball has already let us know, Lester dies by the end of the film, so part of the plot is devoted to building up a list of suspects. With Carolyn taking shooting lessons and Jane asking Ricky to kill her father; both seem like likely candidates however the actual perpetrator is the man who has a room full of guns. The aim of Ball's script is to poke fun at the middle classes with their candlelit suppers and finely pruned roses. I feel he does this admirably as Lester's breakdown begins to effect the world around him and change the status quo in the household that Carolyn has maintained.
I've watched American Beauty several times before and I remember rather enjoying it. However, on this latest viewing, I found myself initially hating Kevin Spacey's performance as Lester. Although the character of Lester is well written, Spacey plays him so withdrawn that it's hard to sympathise with him. It's only in the latter scenes that Spacey brings out an extra dimension to Lester however I feel that other actors would've made me warm to Lester sooner. It seems like I'm in the minority though as Spacey won his second acting Oscar in as many nominations, his first coming via his superior turn in The Usual Suspects. If anybody should have won an Oscar for their performance in American Beauty then it's Annette Bening. Bening utterly becomes Carolyn and makes the scene in which she 'must sell this house today' utterly compelling. In fact, by the end of the film, I had much more sympathy for Carolyn than I did Lester. Fine support was provided courtesy of a regimented Chris Cooper and a withdrawn Alison Janney as Ricky's parents. Sam Mendes, who won the Best Director award for what was his debut feature, perfectly anchored the film's offbeat style. Although a little pretentious for its own good at times, especially with the dancing shopping bag, there's also a lot to like. Among these positive elements are Thomas Newman's haunting score and the way that cinematographer Conrad Hall presents the scenes in which Ricky films Lester and Jane. Despite American Beauty being a well put together and interesting film it doesn't scream Best Picture winner to me. Whilst I enjoyed myself and found it to be an easy watch, I was never blown away and found Spacey's central performance inconsistent throughout. That being said it's still better than a fair few Best Picture nominees that I've watched up to this point and at least the Academy picked a film with plenty of substance.
Whilst the Burnhams are dysfunctional throughout the course of American Beauty, the Fowlers are initially a well-adjusted happy clan who live a fine existence in the small town of Camden, Maine. Father Matt is the town's GP whilst Ruth teaches singing at the local school, meanwhile their son Frank is training to be an architect. The Fowlers lives are full of poker games, barbecues and trips to luxurious cabins; however everything changes when Frank starts to date the much older Natalie Strout. Natalie doesn't come alone; as she has two young sons as well as an abusive ex-husband who turns up every now and then expecting to reunite with her at some point. It's Natalie's ex-husband Richard who changes the course of the film when he storms the family home and shoots Frank dead. From then on the film explores the theme of grief with both Ruth and Matt dealing with the incident in different ways. Matt tries to put a brave face on things and attempts to return to work however it's later made clear that he isn't coping as well as he should. Meanwhile Ruth becomes a lot more withdrawn and it takes it a while to go back to the school to train her choir for the upcoming Labour Day concert. Director Todd Field and co-writer Robert Festinger; who based their script on Andre Dubus' short story Killings, perfectly pace the first two thirds of their story. I felt that Ruth and Matt's ultimate argument occurred at the right time with both throwing the finger of blame at each other. Where the film lost me was in its final act, where Matt finally attempts to extract vengeance for his son's death. These final scenes felt out of place with what had happened up to this point however I felt that Field and Festinger pulled it back with a rather open-ended final scene.
Something that was great throughout the course of In The Bedroom were the performances given by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson as Ruth and Matt. One great thing about doing this challenge is watching the entire span of an actor's career and that's what I feel I've done with Sissy Spacek. From her idealistic roles in Coal Miner's Daughter and Missing, In the Bedroom sees her deal with much more of a down-to-Earth matriarch. However, Spacek's outstanding ability is demonstrated here as she is able to say so much with a sudden glance or the smoking of a cigarette. The grief that Ruth feels is conveyed brilliantly by Spacek especially in an almost inconsequential scene at a log cabin where she chats with an old friend. It's also great to see Tom Wilkinson graduate from British films to playing the lead in an American production where he's able to showcase his extraordinary skills. Wilkinson brings a charm to the character of Matt however I didn't believe his descent into darkness in the aforementioned final scenes. Both Wilkinson and Spacek were nominated for Oscars for their performances as was Marisa Tomei for her turn as the tortured Natalie. As a big fan of Tomei's I was upset when she had little to do following Frank's death although her earlier scenes were more than enough to put her in the Supporting Actress category. Antonio Calvache's cinematography was perfect as he sometimes focused on a specific part of a character's body rather than their facial features. This often gave the character's more depth and allowed us to see through the eyes of Ruth and Matt. Also worth a mention is the haunting music that Ruth is teaching her choir for the concert; this music is added to several of the film's pivotal scenes which gives them a certain eerie edge. It's a shame that In the Bedroom isn't as well remembered as American Beauty because in my opinion it's the superior product. Despite a wonky third act; In the Bedroom is still a brilliant piece of film-making that explores what happens when a shocking incident affects a seemingly normal suburban family.
Next time the blog goes to the races as we have some fun horsing about.
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