Friday, July 06, 2007

American Beauty



“Have you ever watched the movie American Beauty?
“Yes”
“How did you feel about the movie?”
I asked my friend. In fact, his reply made me laugh.
It goes like this - “A happy family- A middle aged husband, his wife and their teenage daughter. The daughter falls in love with the boy neighbor hood, who is a drug dealer, and they have sex!. Wife makes a relationship with her business rival and they have sex! . The Husband develops a crush towards his daughter’s best girl friend and he goes after her to have sex and finally what else, he gets Oscar for that. Wonderful story!!.”

This is one way to describe the 1999 Oscar winner movie “American beauty”. It depends on how you perceive it. Definitely this is not what I felt while watching the movie. I do not have any intention to write a movie review here. But a few words… The story revolves around three members of the family, our Hero played by Kevin Spacey, his wife and teenage daughter, who all hates each other. The movie takes you through these “unhappy” family members and their struggle to appear “normal”.. and the struggle of our hero to re-live the happy moments of his youth amidst of all the worries... the struggle to forget the bitter present …. the struggle to move on… The movie is narrated by Kevin Spacey himself. As the movie ends, he dies and the words he leaves behind as he leaves the screen sent out some touching pulses through my nerves and made me to keydown them in my blog which was in deep slumber for more than a year now.
Here it is

"I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me... but it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst... And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life... You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry... you will someday."

Like Spacey said, I don’t know how many of you can feel the meaning of those words. But one thing I know, I did. May be because I also feel “mad” at times, looking at the way things are going on in my “stupid little life”. May be, I don’t know…
If you haven’t watched this movie yet, I recommend you to watch it.You can comprehend it either the way I did or the way my friend did. It’s up to you. Both ways, its worth watching :)


Tail-piece (vaalkkashaNam) : “It's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world” .But what if that beauty makes you mad ? I donno… I am not that much into "philosophical" things.. My suggestion would be to consult a psychiatrist :) Thats why mental hospitals are here for. Ain't it ?