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Beauty” is about a man named Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), and his ideal American family. “American Beauty” opens by having its propagandistic Lester Burnham declare, “I’m 42 years old and in less than a year I’ll be dead. Of course, I don’t know that yet. In a way I’m dead already.” In this simple manner the film establishes its somber tone, its dry sense of humor, its non-linear narration, and its characters fate. Having revealed the fatal outcome, what follows is a brief overview of the final days of Lester’s frustrated life; of his wife Carolyn’s (Annette Bening) systematic belittling of him and all things associated with him; and of their daughters (Thora Birch) overpowering contempt towards both of them. We first meet Lester as we glide over his uniformly common neighborhood and to his red front door. In voice over he tells us he is “trapped on the proverbial treadmill of his white-collar existence.” Lester is a writer for a big time magazine; his wife Carolyn is a successful real estate agent. The Burnham’s live in the suburb in a white-framed house with a white picket fence. Lester’s wife Carolyn maintains the perfect garden and even has pruning shears to match her gardening clogs.