I was one of the lucky ones. I got to see "American Beauty" about a month before it was released to the general public. It's a remarkable film delving into the nature of one man's rise from white collar suburban hell into the clarity and beauty of the understanding of life's true nature and reward. It is the story of the lives that this man's renewal touches and how he effects each of those around him. It is, simply put, the best American film since "Happiness." The actors in the piece are without flaw.

Kevin Spacey plays the lead. Spacey is one of our greatest American thespians and he continues to earn that recognition with a performance here that is guaranteed to garner an Oscar nod. He elevates the film, as does the script the director and the score composer, to pure art. While there are some things in the film that might be considered typical, and they are very few, Spacey takes all of the film's plot and makes it glimmer. Going through a mid-life crisis, we expect Spacey's character Lester to get a new sports car and quit his job, which he does, but Spacey and scripter Alan Ball take this character so much further. It is an outstanding achievement in creating a unique yet utterly real character and then fleshing him out precisely perfect. Spacey is bold and unwavering in his portrayal here, unafraid to undertake any plot twist or exposition device which revolves around his character. It is the coming of a new light in cinema. Meanwhile, Lester's wife, played by Annette Bening, is going through a life crisis of her own. Bening too is unflinching in her performance, able to deliver mountains of character information and exposition with a single moment, a single line, a single action. Her segment early in the film, where her character, a real estate agent, gets an empty home ready for an open house is sheer torturous brilliance. We understand her so deeply after this moment that all of Spacey's actions towards her later in the film make perfect and absolute sense. But it is Bening's sure brilliance that makes the Spacey character work. Bening herself, like her male costar, must be remembered at Oscar time.

Finally in Lester's family is his teenage daughter, Jane, played by Thora Birch. Never allowing herself to wallow in self pity or self assurance, Jane is a typical teenage girl. But never before have we seen one brought to life with such unabashed candor or daring. Birch is also unflinching in her work to bring Jane to the screen, in true, honest and bold dissertation; She splays out the heart of Jane for all to see. It is beautiful and real. Claire Danes has nothing on this girl.

On the flip side of the screen is the Spacey's family's opposite, their neighbors, a clinched and stoic family in thew grip of a iron fisted father who is unflinching in his conservatism. Played by Chris Cooper, Wes Bentley and Allison Janney, the Fitts family is obviously in trouble. But the scenes here, like Spacey and Bening's, delve much deeper into the problems of these characters. There is no scriptwriter's contrivances or actor's tricks here. This is a real and frightening and utterly devastating viewing. Watching Cooper and Bentley maneuver through a father/son relationship which is so obviously spinning out of control (because each thinks they have the other in control) is nothing short of devastating. The friction between the two when anger and mistrust and, ultimately, violence erupts into their relationship is so confusing and so troubling that it is difficult to watch. Yet director Sam Mendes fashions such a wonderfully articulate and visual film that we simply cannot look away. One of the most wonderful and moving segments in the film has Bentley's Ricky, a video fanatic with a camcorder running constantly in his palm, showing Birch's Jane a 15 minute segment of video which he considers "the most beautiful thing I've ever filmed." He is right. It is sheer beauty. Ricky sees beauty in the most unexpected places and his explicit openness with Jane becomes the glue that cements their relationship. It makes us love him and care about him as well. This is all the more troubling when Bentley's slightly askew world-view comes in to play, obviously distorted by living with his father. Meanwhile, Janney, playing a role quite the opposite of her usual chatty persona, is superb as a woman so devastated by a relationship with a husband who has laid waste to her emotions that she has become nearly catatonic. The interplay within this family is nothing short of torturous wondering. Janney's ability to subtly play within the interworkings of Cooper and Bentley makes their dynamic all the more intense and intricate. Also in the film are several supporting characters who shine with their costars. Mena Suvari as Jane's school friend Angela brings forth a courageous character that is as much wonderful scripting as it is precision acting. Suvari has the most blunt of roles in the film and fulfills the needs of the character in every way shape and form. Scott Bakula and Sam Robards, meanwhile, play minor characters whose importance to the script's plot is paramount. While not the impetus for the ensuing climax of the film, they are certainly an ignition source. They play their roles with perfection as well. Peter Gallagher, allowing himself to looked slightly aged for the film, also provides key insight and plot momentum for Bening's role. Surely if there were awards given for outstanding casts, the players in "American Beauty" would hands-down win the competition. You won't find a better ensemble of characters and actors in a film this year. It is joy to watch this piece unfold in their capable hands, even if what they bring forth is dark and disturbing.

Mendes has one of the finest scripts ever written in his hands and he does not waste the opportunity. His film is beautiful and real and honest and pure and surreal and serene all at the same time. Writer Ball may have come from episodic TV comedy ("Cybil"), but this film is nothing short of the most daring script Hollywood has been wise enough to produce this year. Mendes uses every means at his disposal, including his perfect cast, to pour forth the heart of this film and expose it to us to witness and wonder with. Mendes comes from stage but he understands the language of cinema as if it were his native tongue. Perhaps his ability to work with actors helped this film to surge forth with the zeal it possesses. But the visual beauty of the film, enhanced by the crystalline score of Thomas Newman, is nothing short of mastery. Mendes and Ball may be so new to film that their first work was able to have no rules because they knew no rules; no fear because they knew no fear. Whatever the reason, this work is as near to perfect as an American Hollywood film can be. "American Beauty" is simply an awesome film. Perhaps it is too cerebral for the general public. Perhaps it is too artistic and articulate for Hollywood studios (although Dreamworks seems to understand it's beauty), perhaps it is too perfect and too revealing for most. But for those willing, open and intelligent enough to appreciate it, the rewards are generous. "American Beauty" is like watching the leaves fall in autumn. While many will not understand the turning of the seasons and curse the coming of colder weather, others revel in it's beauty and it's celebration of the evolution of existence. It's all in how you look at it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This film explains that clearly. But it also shows us that under all our ideals of beauty, whether physical, cerebral or imagined, there is a dark and disturbing counterbalance. It must be there to counterbalance the beauty with which we imbibe the thing, the object, the idea, the person. Look closer.

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