THE PLOTLINE: I can't really tell the entire plotline here, because it is too in-depth. So, I'll summarize it.
The film goes through the life of Lester Burnham; an aging man who is going through a midlife crisis. He feels he's "dead already" (which is true, considering that Lester is also the narrator and is speaking after he has died... a mere year later) because his wife Carol and daughter Jane hate him, he's about to lose his job, and he feels devastated in every way. That is, until he meets Angela, a friend of Jane's, who he falls deeply in love with. This begins to set off a series of changes, as Lester comes back to life, and rekindles the life he feels he once had. At the same time, his wife and daughter also 'come alive' as it is; with Carol cheating on Lester with Buddy, the 'Real Estate King' and Jane who begins seeing Ricky Fitz, a new next door neighbour who is obsessed with filming anything that is beautiful.
Together, all the character have inter-mixing backgrounds which inevitably lead up to Lester's death (I'm not going to tell you what happens though).
That's all I"m going to write about the plot for now, because I can't say anything more without revealing anything else. But I will say this; this movie is an expose on society. Each of the characters represent something ugly about society, something we like to think doesn't exist. The fact of the matter is, that it does however, and the movie has no pretenses about hiding it (unlike our lives). However, despite showing the ugly side of life, the movie also gives us a glimpse of true beauty and what happiness may be like. This comes through the reawakening of Lester. Although Lester falls in love with a 16 year old girl, it is a combination of love and lust that drive him to reawaken, both of which are benevolant emotions. He becomes a teenager again and has never felt more alive. In fact, although at the end, Lester dies, I did not feel sorry for him. The reason is that he died happy. How many people do you think die happy? Not too damned many, and although the circumstances surrounding it were sad, I couldn't help but feel joy at the thought of beauty, and where it exists in the movie by the end.
The person who shows us this beauty is Ricky Fitz. I must say that I can't look at plastic bags and leaves without being touched. Although I don't agree that everything is beautiful, I do think that there is beauty in everything, and I believe that is what the director is trying to say. After watching the film, I believe I agreed with Ricky when he said "Sometimes there's just so much beauty out there, I don't think I can take it."
Well, that's my rant for now. Whatever you may think about the movie is a preconceived notion anyways, and my opinion won't really matter. See it if you want, but if you do, watch it for its deeper meaning. Don't watch it because you think its 'cool' or 'disgusting' to see a 40 year old man chase after a 16 year old girl. Watch it for more than that. This is the ONLY movie I've ever seen that I believe deserved every goddam award it received, and it probably should have received more.
- K.R