American Beauty 5

Theme is about how everyone has their own sense of what finding beauty in life entails. The film illustrates that the traditional model of American beauty -- a nice home with your family in the suburbs -- can be a shallow facade and not as fulfilling as it appears. The theme suggests that deviating from glorified suburban ideals (by taking a fast food job, dating someone younger, befriending a misfit, being mistaken as gay, etc.) will bring you fierce recrimination, yet may be the only way for some to discover true happiness in life. The movie wasn't designed to be an uplifting crowd pleaser, as much as one that provokes with its message. While I was uncomfortable watching the movie at times, it was intriguing and affecting enough for me to want to view many key scenes a second time immediately afterward. As the movie states, where some might just see an empty bag floating in the wind, another might see beauty.