9/16/99: Movies are meant as an escape from real life. So what happens when it's a story of the lives that most of us lead? Well in the case of American Beauty, it's incredibly brilliant.

Kevin Spacey gives an Oscar caliber performance as the everyman. Lester Burnham, a middle-aged magazine writer, unsatisfiedwith life. A job where he does the bare minimum to keep from getting fired, and a marriage that's just going through the motions. He also has one of the most satisfying voice overs in recent movie history. His wife Carolyn, played to perfection by Annette Benning, is also deeply unhappy, but she's denying it and trying to cover it up. Their daughter Jane, in a good performance by Thora "Monkey Trouble" Birch, a typical teenager, dealing with the many problems those horrible years bring. With a great line, Lester sums it up, "I want to tell Jane that it get's better, but I don't want to lie to her."

This could probably go on forever, that is until Lester meets his daughter's friend Angela, American Pie's Mena Suvari, she's a stuck up daddy's girl. But her beauty is the catalyst that sends a message to Lester that he needs to change his life. His new life causes a chain reaction through the family. Carolyn has an affair. Jane falls for the new neighbor boy, considered weird at first, we then learn he has the strongest grip on reality of the whole bunch. Mixed into this are the boy's parents, who have major problems, and gay neighbors, who are probably leading the most normal life on the block.

The film opens with it's ending, and even though you know it's coming it is very hard to take. Because you love these characters, you want them to be happy, and most importantly you can put yourself in their place very easily.