American Beauty: Story Through Character

When I’m in a writing mood, quite often I neglect plot and come up with interesting and multi-faceted characters. They provide building blocks for a film and in many cases come up with their own stories as they develop. Some may think this is madness. ‘How could it possibly work?’ you may cry. Well, in response, I present to you: American Beauty.

Set in the 90s, this film explores the life of the seemingly perfect suburban family of Lester Burnham, and through voyeuristic cinematography and exquisitely crated characters and relationships, exposes the rotten truth of how terrible their lives really are. l have seen American Beauty no less than six times, and have written essays on its construction and character relationships, and I truly expected to hate it by the third or fourth viewing (as I do most of the other films I have worked on during my degree). However, I didn’t and don’t. It is a masterpiece of writing and I get pulled in every time. So how did they pull that off?

Character establishment and development is pivotal to the progression of this story and is done in a beautifully subtle way. Right from the voice over at the start (which is used beautifully, hesitant though I am to like any sort of establishing voice over) the descriptions of the characters such as ‘her rose clipper handles match her shoes. This is not an accident.’ provide an original introduction to the character of a controlling perfectionist of a wife. There is no archetypal introduction, but the archetype of the controlling and work obsessed partner is recognised through this more original aspect.

Right from the start the rose motif is clear as well; throughout the film vases of roses are seen and the fantasies of protagonist Lester Burnham are awash with passionate red rose petals. This is a lovely visual metaphor to tie in with the title; a clever name that refers to a species of rose that looks beautiful but is prone to rot at the roots, which is a perfect analogy of the family being portrayed.

The voyeuristic cinematography adds to the fly-on-the-wall feel and really makes you feel like you are sneaking a peek at a family falling to pieces. There are several scenes where this can be seen, such as the shower scene right at the beginning where the camera shoots through the glass rather than being in the shower with Burnham, which encourages you to be captivated more by what you are watching because you feel you are watching something forbidden and hidden away. Many shots are framed from more of a distance than what would feel natural, making the viewer feel like a spy on the situation shown. One of the characters also has a video camera and throughout the film a selection of his home made videos of the neighbours are shown, adding to the voyeuristic motif of the film as a whole.

The whole film seems to express the difficult maturation of people at various stages in their lives. It pushes that idea to extremes but in a gradual and subtle way so the progression from a superficial character and the facade all the characters show fades to reveal the true person underneath. The final scenes are unexpected, but they also seem logical with the characters presented and progression of events. It’s almost like the escalation of events sneaks up on you because you become so engaged with the characters you forget it’s a film and not a real bunch of people. This is testament not only to the writing, but to the cast who are great across the board (a rare thing for a film with a comparatively large number of major characters).

This film proves that characters can make and drive a story. All of the main plot points involve interactions between the characters portrayed and the resulting chaos, and these points would not be possible if it were not for the characters. The world they live in is a very ordinary one that would not drive a story at all, but with the combination of personalities portrayed, a compelling and engaging story is crafted. American Beauty is definitely one to watch and remember as a triumph of character construction.