American Beauty

We watched American Beauty in class this week and it happens to be one of my favorite movies. its probably in my top 10. I enjoy watching it because its not like every movie you have seen out there its not all happy all the time and its not like your watching some perfect family on televison and having a happy ending. the movie is about finding happiness and making a change when you know something in your life isn’t working out for you or anyone else in the matter. but the main character does take it to a extrem in alot of ways. his personailty completly changes through out the film. He beings the film by a very passive aggressive additude and putting up with everyone that gives him grief like his wife his boss, and daughter. then as the film goes on his personality changes he stops putting up with everyone and puts him-self for the first time maybe in a long time. His marriage begins to fall apart but they both knew that it was over for a long time. with making himself happy he does become more estranged from his family even more so then he was in the beginning. Its not that he didn’t love his daughter or anything but its hard to do what you want all the time when you have a family because you have to put more of the things you want to do aside. He becomes kind of selfish in a way but i guess that really all depends on how you look at. you have a husband who no longer talks with his wife or daughter and then by trying to change he ends up losing them anyway because he then only thinks about him self and what he wants to do and what will make him happy. But maybe he just stoped caring about all the stuff in life that doesn’t really matter. I enjoy the movie because each character is going through a diffrent serious of emotions which gives you more of a chance to relate to one or many of the characters in the film. I felt it made it easier for me to compare it to some sitiuations or feelings in my life.
Kevin Spacey’s charachter lester was in search for what he thought was the good life for him and in the end figured out a way to make himself happy at the expensive of his loved ones. So did he really ever achieve the good life at all? Is that the risks you hav to take? will anyone every be able to achieve that good life or is it just something that we can think about but never be able to touch it?