 According to the reviewer of "American Beauty," the protagonist Lester has mostly lost _____.
Apparently, Lester doesn't realize that snipped roses are garden-variety symbols of castration, or he'd know what he has lost. Ambient noise falls away, the crowd disappears, and there she is, Lester's angel, writhing in slow motion--just for him. Lester's wife, Carolyn, is even more stridently caricatured. In movies like sex, lies, and videotape (1989), the protagonist has to put away the video camera to "get real"; in American Beauty , it's Ricky Fitts, the damaged stoner videomaker next door, who sees beauty where nonartists see only horror or nothingness.
 His manhood
 His manhood  His sex drive  His family  His sanity