American Beauty is a brilliantly crafted film that echoes John Cheever's The Swimmer --both are cautionary tales suggesting how easily lost we may become in search of the American Dream and how difficult it is to find our way home again. The powerful ending presents a narrative from the grave as Spacey's character, with Christlike forgiveness, dies for us and suggests the existence of a path that might take us through the thicket of materialism, egotism, and sexuality that characterizes the American landscape. Spacey's character sights a higher path during the long second before death; hopefully, we will see this path less traveled earlier in our own individual journey.