A Vote for Spacey

Committing a grave sin of omission in his article on the success of “American Beauty” (“A Thing of Rare ‘Beauty’ for Marketers,” Sept. 29), Richard Natale overlooks the enormous appeal of the formidable Kevin Spacey as one of the film’s “not so hidden” attractions.

In a role that a lesser actor might have reduced to a cliche of Humbertesque lechery, Spacey finds vulnerability, vanity, self-delusion, defeat, nobility and ultimately triumph. Even the briefest story synopses and the most elliptical trailers revealed that Lester Burnham could be Spacey’s most compelling character to date, and that’s one of the reasons why we normally reluctant fortysomethings waited in line on opening weekend. I’ll bet that’s why a number of twentysomethings were there too. I suspect that very few of us were disappointed.

MARY BETH CULP

San Pedro