Movie of the Week: American Beauty

I'm hoping to see Skyfall this weekend.  In general, I have been happy with the Daniel Craig era of the James Bond films, but what really has me intrigued is the fact that Sam Mendes directed this latest one.  I consider him to be a talented an thought-provoking director.  Revolutionary Road was a little hard to take, though that was more about the subject matter than the way it was filmed. On the other hand, I really loved Road to Perdition.

Since I haven't seen Skyfall yet, I'll highlight a different Sam Mendes film, and one of my top ten all-time favourites, for sure:  American Beauty.  This was an extremely well-received film when it came out, and in my opinion deservedly so.  However, there seems to have been a certain amount of revisionism since then, and its Rotten Tomatoes score currently sits at only 88%.  I consider that to be a travesty--this movie has everything:  sharp writing, a great directorial debut, fantastic acting, an amazing score by Thomas Newman, and most of all, some really important messages.  I like to periodically view the final scene when I find myself in need of some perspective.  How can you not be affected by the things Kevin Spacey says:  "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, and my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst.  An 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."

Here's that final scene: