 According to the reviewer, which motif seems to represent the precariousness of reality?
Apparently, Lester doesn't realize that snipped roses are garden-variety symbols of castration, or he'd know what he has lost. More important, it has a vein of metaphysical yearning, which the director, Sam Mendes, mines brilliantly. A hotshot English theater director (his Cabaret revival is still on the boards in New York), Mendes gives the film a patina of New Age lyricism and layer upon layer of visual irony. Mendes can distend the real into the surreal with imperceptible puffs. A merican Beauty is so wittily written and gorgeously directed that you might think you're seeing something archetypal--maybe even the Great American Movie.
 The grainy texture of Ricky's camera film
 The rose petals in Angela's bathtub  The undulating plastic bag  The grainy texture of Ricky's camera film  The raindrops falling on top of the Colonel