American Beauty

As the Film starts it introduces you to the main character in the film Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) as he introduces himself it shows a stereotypical American neighbourhood, with the white picket fences and bright flowers. At the start when Lester speaks his voice sounds confident, but as the scene goes on you can tell that his voice becomes more monotone and boring. Lester gives the impression that he has given up and has a very cynical view to life, his body language shows him to be defeatist which gives you the impression that he is slowly fading away.

Lester's relationship with his wife and daughter seem to be very distant, from the scene it shows Lester being treated like the child in the family this is shown when he is the one always late for work when typically in other films the teenage daughter would be the most likely one to be running late in the morning, Lester also sits in the back seat of the car while his daughter and wife sit in the front, when normally the younger in the family sits in the back of the car. As Lester leaves their stereotypical suburban house he accidentally drops the contents of his briefcase onto the driveway, as he does this Lester's wife looks at him with a face of disgust and disappointment from this you can tell that their relationship is almost non existent and that they have a mutual dislike of each other. After dropping his briefcase Lester says "both my wife and daughter think I'm a gigantic loser, and they are right"  which enforces the impression of Lester Burnham conveys in the opening of the film.

Throughout the film there is a colour scheme the colours used are; red, blue and white all of these colours represent the American flag. The other colours in the film seem to be dull whereas, the bright red roses stand out against the dull background this is the same with the house that is painted a sky blue colour.

After watching this you get the sense that Lester is trapped, trapped in his boring materialistic life with no way out. the film plays on him being 'trapped' when it shows his wife outside talking to the neighbours and he is inside the house staring out of the window looking at them, this looks like the window is acting as a barrier 'trapping' him inside his own house. When Lester is sitting in the car on the way to work you see him staring out of the window up to the bright blue sky and it looks as if the glass is trapping him from escaping his monotonous day-to-day routine.