American Beauty/美国丽人

Being different from its name, the movie showed the audience the ordinary life of some American families; ordinary, but not beautiful. Below their glamorous life, everyone has some private life which could not be made public.

Applying the tactic of irony, the movie did not limit itself to reveal various dark private lives of the roles. In the darkness, there was still some light, which was the leading role by Kevin Spacey. The man, though in his midlife crisis, was so positive in renovating himself because of some illusory sexual appeal. However, it was more sarcastic that he, almost the only positive guy in the movie, was murdered in the end of the movie. The so-called American Dream was broken for the audience, which may be the subject of the movie.

和本片的名字不一样，本片中展现的生活很寻常，但并不美丽。每个人外表光鲜的生活下面，却个个都有上不了台面的私生活。

本片采用的是反讽的手法，但它并不仅局限在揭示各个角色黑暗的私生活上。在这一片黑暗中，仍然有一丝光明，那就是由Kevin Spacey主演的男主角，他在中年危机的时候，竟然还能为了一丝虚幻的异性吸引力积极地改造自己。但更加嘲讽的是，在影片结尾，这个唯一还有一点光明的角色却被谋杀了，对观众来说，所谓的美国梦也就此破碎，这或许也是影片的主题。

Performance impression:
Director: Sam Mendes
Stars: Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch