After spending the next few years writing for television, Ball revived the idea in 1997 when attempting to break into the film industry. He shelved the play after deciding that the story would not work on stage.
Academics have described the film as satirizing how beauty and personal satisfaction are perceived by the American middle class further analysis has focused on the film's explorations of romantic and paternal love, sexuality, materialism, self-liberation, and redemption.īall began writing American Beauty as a play in the early 1990s, partly inspired by the media circus that accompanied the Amy Fisher trial in 1992. Wes Bentley, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney co-star. Annette Bening stars as Lester's materialistic wife, Carolyn, and Thora Birch plays their insecure daughter, Jane. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, an advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter's best friend, played by Mena Suvari. American Beauty is a 1999 American psychological black comedy-drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes in his directorial debut.
