American Beauty
.... His buying the red sports car is a key point that symbolizes his lust for freedom, but while he is on his way towards freedom, he doesn’t realize that there are others in his own home going through something quite similar. His wife, Carolyn, who tries her best to demonstrate the appearance of happiness and perfection, is, as well going through her own form of imprisonment. Carolyn’s situation centres on her career; the need to be the best at what she does, which is a real estate agent. In the scene when she says, “I will sell this house today,” shows that her job is a major imprisonment for her. Her need for ultimate perfection and that American Dream, confines her to the point that she begins an affair with real estate king, Buddy Kane. Carolyn Burnham provides the audience an opportunity to view a faulting marriage and personal frustration through the perspective of a self-absorbed, narrow-minded woman whose primary concern is to "project an image of success at all times.” Asking her daughter Jane if she is trying to look unattractive also confirms her need for perfection that is also an imprisonment. Then there's sullen Jane, who's caught between her parents. Displeased with her physical appearance, she is saving up for breast augmentation surgery. As the film progresses, she develops an unusual relationship with Ricky Fitts, the boy next door. She too, looking for the freedom from her parents that she classifies as freaks, finds it in Ricky. Her want for breast augmentation is a type of imprisonment as well, but the scene where she undresses for Ricky is a sort of acceptance or even a sense of freedom, a release. Jane also has to deal with Angela's growing fascination with the possibility of sleeping with Lester - a consideration that disgusts her. Through this Jane begins to rely on Ricky, as she becomes the lucid part in all this. Meanwhile, Ricky has his own imprisonments. His mother is virtually withdrawn from life and his father is an ex-Marine neo-Nazi homophobe who submits his son's urine for drug testing every six months. Ricky’s search for freedom can be seen through the filtration of his camcorder. Everything he films is beautiful and in this he finds his bit of freedom, but its not enough to break from the constraints of his father’s iron grip. Ricky finally breaks and tells his father that he is gay, which is completely a lie, knowing that his father detests gays, but what Ricky does not know is that his father harbours secrets of his own. Colonel Frank Fitts is a retired war hero. He dictates his house like a commander runs a battalion. In his own way is imprisoned by the thought of needing to discipline Ricky and hi...