Stop the Synopses

It is time to enlighten your movie reviewers, as all they do is reveal the entire plot of the movie, ruining our (the ticket-buying audience) opportunity to be surprised and have a fresh experience.

Please awaken your reviewers to their real purpose, which is to share their opinion, their point of view, their intellectual or emotional or educated response to a filmmaker’s work. Their job is not to tell us everything that happens, thus depriving us of original responses as we sit in the dark, delighted in our unknowing.

Instead of lauding and revealing everything about “American Beauty” (“The Rose’s Thorns,” Sept. 15), wouldn’t it be interesting if a reviewer noted that the film is essentially a nihilistic, hopeless paean using the all-too-familiar, too-easy target of Midwest American values? Such was done much better in “Blue Velvet” when it was timely.

It might also be interesting if a reviewer had the courage to note that in “American Beauty,” all the heterosexuals (male and female) are damaged goods, whereas the only balanced, decent, attractive couple are two gay guys.

But then again, I have seen little courage and even less astute observations about film from your present reviewers, whom I expect to react defensively to the above.

RICK EDELSTEIN

Los Angeles