With the Oscars around the corner, one might sit and think to themselves how screenwriters are able to keep the plot from confusing the viewer, while still adding their own touch of twists and turns. Linda Seger, a script consultant and author, wrote a piece outlining the ten most essential plot points and concepts for a successful movie. The following piece will address the classic movie "American Beauty", telling the story of Lester Burnham, a "42-year-old father, husband and advertising executive" (IMDb). The movie follows him through his turbulent relationship with his wife, Carolyn, and develops feelings for his daughter's friend, Angela. The viewer sees as Lester goes through a sort of midlife crisis to impress Angela from afar. Eventually,
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Burnham by selling him marijuana, therefore providing him an escape, and in interacting with him, helps him feel young again. Being lost and in his mind a sort of trapped soul, he sympathizes with Lester and allows himself to be befriended by him. Angela helps Lester in two ways. The first manner in which she helps Lester is by providing him a mental escape from his unsatisfying marriage. Angela says it herself when she tells Jane, "I think he and your mother have not had sex in a long time" (Ball). For most of the movie, she helps him by boosting his confidence, giving him a goal to work towards and making him feel young again. In the climactic moment of having her alone, just as he thinks he is going to achieve that goal, she shyly admits it's her first time and adds, "I just thought I should tell you… in case you wondered why I wasn't… better" (Ball). Her sudden expression of lack of self-confidence immediately flipped a switch in Lester's mind. Her words, accompanied by her delivery and sheepish body language squashed her down to the real age she was. She now helped him in her second way; she lifted this pressure off his shoulders by uncovering the gravity of the situation. She was not a sexually precocious teenager; she was a lost soul trying to feel older and find out who she was. After feeding her and her going to the restroom to untangle her emotions, this mental weightlessness reaches its peak, which leads into Lester's fulfillment of a third of Seger's
Burnham by selling him marijuana, therefore providing him an escape, and in interacting with him, helps him feel young again. Being lost and in his mind a sort of trapped soul, he sympathizes with Lester and allows himself to be befriended by him. Angela helps Lester in two ways. The first manner in which she helps Lester is by providing him a mental escape from his unsatisfying marriage. Angela says it herself when she tells Jane, "I think he and your mother have not had sex in a long time" (Ball). For most of the movie, she helps him by boosting his confidence, giving him a goal to work towards and making him feel young again. In the climactic moment of having her alone, just as he thinks he is going to achieve that goal, she shyly admits it's her first time and adds, "I just thought I should tell you… in case you wondered why I wasn't… better" (Ball). Her sudden expression of lack of self-confidence immediately flipped a switch in Lester's mind. Her words, accompanied by her delivery and sheepish body language squashed her down to the real age she was. She now helped him in her second way; she lifted this pressure off his shoulders by uncovering the gravity of the situation. She was not a sexually precocious teenager; she was a lost soul trying to feel older and find out who she was. After feeding her and her going to the restroom to untangle her emotions, this mental weightlessness reaches its peak, which leads into Lester's fulfillment of a third of Seger's