Things are not what they seem in the opening scenes of the film, American Beauty.  The quiet sense of bliss and tranquility of American suburban streets, replete with their respectable houses fringed with neatly mowed grass contained within pristine white picket fences, belie the reality within.

Lester Burnham, (Kevin Spacey) tells us as the film begins that he will be dead in less than a year and at that stage the audience doesn't particularly care as he reveals himself as an unlikeable main protagonists of the film.  He is portrayed as insignificant, ineffectual and insipid as a person, husband and father in a middle-class suburban family. He is continuously shown with bars that surround him which express how he is "trapped" in his life.

He is employed as an uninspired magazine writer; is married to Carolyn (Annette Bening) who is a materialistic and pushy estate agent...