American Beauty
Spacey and Bening play the unhappily married Burnhams. They have a daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and a nice house in the suburbs, replete with expensive tasteful furniture and a Mercedes SUV. Spacey's character is Lester, a sarcastic but weak-willed advertising writer who inwardly loathes his job and regards his wife with disdain--though he obeys her. Bening is Carolyn: a high-strung career-minded woman with an elaborately coiffured hair, garden, and lifestyle. They have such opposite interests, it's a wonder they can live together.
The film open with videotape footage of Jane complaining about her father. A voice offscreen asks if she'd like him "out of the way." "Yes. Would you?" she deadpans. Then our story begins as Lester's voice-over informs us that he will be dead within a year. It's no spoiler to reveal then that Lester's narration is going to carry the dramatic weight of one beyond the grave, like William Holden in Sunset Boulevard. How we arrive at Lester's demise is unexpected, daring, and yet still believable.
Spacey and Bening play the unhappily married Burnhams. They have a daughter Jane (Thora Birch) and a nice house in the suburbs, replete with expensive tasteful furniture and a Mercedes SUV. Spacey's character is Lester, a sarcastic but weak-willed advertising writer who inwardly loathes his job and regards his wife with disdain--though he obeys her. Bening is Carolyn: a high-strung career-minded woman with an elaborately coiffured hair, garden, and lifestyle. They have such opposite interests, it's a wonder they can live together.
The film open with videotape footage of Jane complaining about her father. A voice offscreen asks if she'd like him "out of the way." "Yes. Would you?" she deadpans. Then our story begins as Lester's voice-over informs us that he will be dead within a year. It's no spoiler to reveal then that Lester's narration is going to carry the dramatic weight of one beyond the grave, like William Holden in Sunset Boulevard. How we arrive at Lester's demise is unexpected, daring, and yet still believable.