10 Things You Didn't Know About American Beauty
7. Where In The World Is Lester Burnham?
To make the film more universal, efforts were made not to explicitly specify an exact location. This allowed the story to be a vaster satirical dissection of American suburbia. Despite this the settings and locations do not suffer and are far from generic.
However, several small background clues point to the film being set in suburban Chicago. Firstly, The Chicago Sun Times is briefly on-view in the Burnham’s kitchen. In the key scene where Lester gets Angela’s number from Jane’s phone book, the Chicago 312 area code is visible.
Also, on real estate rivals Carolyn’s and Buddy’s lawn signs their business phone numbers have the area code 847, which covers the northern suburbs of Chicago.
Conversely, the licence plates from the movie are not Illinois plates, and instead identify the area as "The Primrose State".
During the American Woman improv scene where Lester is driving, vigilant viewers have spotted that the scene is filmed in Burbank, California, as the Disney Channel building can be seen reflected on the car’s windshield. This is likely a goof.