American Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Folks, there are semi-spoilers in this column, so if you haven't seen "American Beauty" and wish to, read no further.

I waited for the hoopla about "American Beauty" to die down, and finally saw it last week. This was the best movie I saw all year, and if you haven't seen it yet, gentle reader, go. Make time, get a sitter, whatever, go see this thing before it's gone, 'cause even though it's no big effects movie, there's nothing like sitting in a dark room full of strangers and laughing your ass off because it really is that funny.

Tuesday, I was on a conference call with my team and mentioned how much I liked it. I hardly got out a sentence before someone complained that she just couldn't appreciate the movie because of the "pedophilia" angle. Whereas I can perfectly understand someone who hasn't seen the movie getting upset because the guy gets infatuated with his daughter's friend, I can't accept someone who watched the movie and paid attention, really taking that accusation seriously.

I consulted some knowledgeable people. A friend's sister, at the Pacific Film Archive of the UC Berkeley Museum said the pedophilia interpretation was absurd. My sister-in-law Toni Lemus, who graduated from CCAC with a Film degree, said the same thing. Toni's criticism of "American Beauty", by the way, is thought-provoking. She contends that it is a flaw in the character of today's American man that escape, rather than confrontation, is the preferred method these days in overcoming adversity at home or at work. A great example of this, and highly enjoyable to boot, by the way, is Mike Judge's (of "Beavis and Butt-Head" and "King of the Hill" fame) "Office Space".

I decided to look into it further, and I did some research of USENET on Deja.com. There are an awful lot of people with that same skewed point of view. From alt.support.eating-disorders to alt.religion.wicca, people are accusing each other of pedophilia just because they liked the movie!

By the way, Screenit.com, who did an exhaustive catalog of anything parents might find unsavory about "American Beauty", didn't once mention pedophilia.

What message should we carry away from this phenomenon? On the surface, one can say that the people who thought "American Beauty" was about pedophilia missed the point of the movie.

"American Beauty" is not about a Lolita relationship, anyway. It's about yearning after youth, respect, power and, of course, beauty." -Roger Ebert, Chicago Tribune

I like Roger for several reasons, not least of which was his screenplay for Russ Meyer's "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls". I always feel he's actually thought about what he's saying, and because he's been in the business of making movies, I find him that much more qualified than, say, Leonard Maudlin.

Getting beneath the surface of this problem (people who mistake the plot and imagery of "American Beauty" for a pedophilia) is an interesting prospect, and requires much more attention than I'm willing to give it, and probably more psycho-social training than I'm ever going to have, in order to do it justice. Anyone who wants to tackle this should feel free to contact the Editor's Desk.

Let's tackle why, thematically, the movie isn't about pedophilia. Lester Burnham, Kevin Spacey's character, is a guy who sees everything about his adult life as being wrong and broken, so he goes back to when life was simplest--His teens.

What sucks so bad in his life?

Now, everybody thinks there's a single inciting event that changes the direction of Lester's life, but really, there are two: When Carolyn drags him off to see Jane at her ersatz-Bob Fosse cheerleading gig, he spots Angela (Meena Suwari) doing her teen cheerleader thing, and he ends up having a fantasy nearly worthy of Kim Basinger's "Leave Your Hat On" striptease in "91/2 Weeks". The other event is when Carolyn again drags him off, this time to a dreadfully boring local businesspersons' event. He encounters teenaged neighbor Ricky (Wes Bentley), and gets high with him in the parking lot. It's either that or get shitfaced like his wife, so why not, indeed? When the reception hall manager finds Ricky slacking, he threatens to fire the kid, but Ricky, without missing a beat, does the "you can't fire me, I quit" routine, and becomes Lester's "personal hero".

Without both these occurrences, Lester would never have been able to transform his life.

In short, he quits his job and goes to a much happier one flipping burgers. He trades in his Honda for the car he's always wanted, an "Arrest Me Red" 1970 Firebird. He starts running and lifting weights (when his neighbor who runs every day asks him if he's going for strength or health, Lester answers, "I want to look good naked".

And he continues to have fantasies about Angela.

But let's look at those fantasies for a minute. What is actually onscreen? Except for the first fantasy when she's wearing the cheerleader outfit Lester sees her in, none of the (beautifully filmed and scored) fantasy scenes has anything to do with Angela's status as a minor.

She's an attractive girl, if blondes do it for you.

I'm going to quote from Roger again, 'cause he just says it so well: "Men are born with wiring that goes directly from their eyes to their genitals, bypassing the higher centers of thought. They can disapprove of their thoughts, but they cannot stop themselves from having them."

As if all of this wasn't enough to convince people Lester isn't pedophilic, when he finally has the chance to make his fantasies come true with Angela, the wrongness of the act hits him. In a great turnaround, he finally starts behaving like a father.

There is one other thing I want to say about this movie. It's my opinion that Lester Burnham is "Risky Business'" Joel Goodson in a future gone awry.

Everybody's always telling the uptight Joel to "say 'What the fuck', and take your chances." He's all but paralyzed by uncertainty and inexperience, but when he finally says "What the fuck", he drives the Porsche, gets the girl, makes some money, gets accepted to Princeton. He has, as Guido the Killer Pimp tells him, "the time of his life."

But what if he eventually forgot to say "What the fuck" and take his chances? He'd end up a nondescript, unhappy schmuck with a nondescript, unhappy job, in a nondescript, unhappy marriage, and living in a nondescript, unhappy suburb.

I think the unusual cinematography and ethereal, Tangerine Dream-like music also support my hypothesis.

Anyway, even though the pedophile-hunters missed the point of the movie, that's okay.
It's just their problem.