"Welcome to America's Weirdest Home Videos"-an apt line from American Beauty-director Sam Mendes and screenwriter Alan Ball's stark art set piece of individual torment and family calamity. Familiar territory immediately reminiscent of Ordinary People and The Ice Storm (films that influenced Mendes, Premiere 10/99), American Beauty is a Dramatica grand argument story that compels us to "look closer" at pain and mundane and life will reveal the spectacular.

INANITY

Main character Lester Burnham recounts in voice-over: "I'm forty-two-years old. In less than a year, I'll be dead. In a way, I'm dead already. . . . Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser (objective story problem-perception). And they're right (mc problem-perception). I've lost something very important. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know I didn't always feel this . . . sedated (mc focus-inertia). But you know what? It's never too late to get it back" (mc growth-start).

At Lester's ad agency, it has been decided (os driver) that: ". . . everyone write a job description, mapping out in detail how they contribute. That way, management can assess who's valuable and who's 'expendable'" (os concern conceptualizing). Lester objects (mc approach-do-er) to this "fascist" order (os focus)-wife Carolyn, a study in glacial ambition, asserts: "There is no decision. Just write the damn thing! . . . you don't want to be unemployed" (os direction-chaos).

Lester sulkily attends daughter Jane's high school dance performance with Carolyn: "What makes you so sure she wants us to be there? Did she ask us to come? . . . I'm missing the James Bond marathon on TNT."

Jane's best friend and fellow "Dancing Pantherette" Angela Hayes (allusion to Nabokov's Lolita Haze?) catapults Lester out of his malaise: "I feel like I've been in a coma for about twenty years (mc concern-past), and I'm just now waking up" (mc growth-start)-priming him for the impact of obstacle character Ricky Fitts.

Apathetically escorting Carolyn to a realtor's function: "Lester, listen to me. This is important . . . as you know, my business is selling an image (os problem-perception) . . . do me a favor and act happy" (os benchmark-being)-Lester is approached by Ricky, a waiter in the hotel:

Like all the objective characters in American Beauty, Ricky has his own agenda (os domain-psychology). Taking Jane in with an ardent video gaze-he is captivated:

Voyeurism and exhibitionism loop, as through the camera lens Ricky seeks out Jane from his bedroom window:

Lester continues to be directed by change: "It's a great thing to realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself. Makes you wonder what else you can do that you've forgotten about . . ."

He meets Ricky's father, Colonel Frank Fitts, U.S. Marine Corps-a man locked in a perpetual vise grip of impotent rage-always suspicious (oc thematic counterpoint) of what goes on in his son's life. Immoral and/or illegal:

Lester and Carolyn's marriage is another relationship in denial:

The changes include Lester quitting his job (after blackmailing his boss for a sweet severance package), hiring on at a fast food restaurant, and indulging in adolescent fantasies (os dividend-the past). Incensed, Carolyn relieves her stress by bopping Leonard Kane-The Real Estate King-and obsessively shooting a "Glock 19" automatic revolver at the local firing range.

Ricky confides his fierce obsession to Jane: "I knew there was this entire life behind things, and . . . this incredibly benevolent force, that wanted me to know there was no reason to be afraid. Ever. Video's a poor excuse. But it helps remember . . . and I need to remember . . ." (oc concern-memory)

Ricky must recall all instances of beauty to survive as the only child of a desensitized (os inhibitor-senses) mother and militaristic father:

INSANITY

Ultimately, the fairytale of an American family (os goal-conceptualizing) fractures(outcome-failure):

A day of cataclysmic decisions.

Colonel Fitts misinterprets (ss thematic counterpoint) the relationship between Lester and Ricky as homosexual. An avowed homophobic-he brutally evicts his son from their home. The Colonel is only repressing his own feelings (os solution-actuality). Unpredictably (mc thematic issue) he kisses Lester on the mouth. Lester compassionately rebuffs his advances, unaware of the impossible circumstances (os catalyst) in which the Colonel now (os forewarnings-present) finds himself.

Ricky asks Jane to run away with him:

Angela, alienated from Jane and Ricky, is determined to follow through with her seductive promise to Lester. Until:

Reality check (mc solution-actuality). Lester decides not to deflower this American beauty (mc resolve-change).

Morality gives way to mortality. The Colonel silently returns and takes a gun to Lester. Carolyn, arriving on the scene, gathers Lester's empty suits in her arms, understanding (os consequence) the husband she so contemptuously dismissed, is really gone (limit-optionlock).

HUMANITY

Lester takes his demise philosophically:

A life of artifice and the ordinary redeemed by an appreciation for the extraordinary.

NOTE: Since the time of this article's publication, it has been determined that the storyform presented above was inaccurate in regards to one key story point: the Main Character's Problem-Solving Style (now Linear).