American Beauty

“... look closer”

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is an advertising executive in the suburbs who feels like a ghost in his own house, ignored by his wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) and his daughter Jane (Thora Birch). Then he sees Jane's friend Angela (Mena Suvari) and decides, abruptly, to change everything about how he lives. Sam Mendes, in his first feature, stages the Burnham home as a well-kept, quiet place where nobody says what they want.