Was Lester depressed?

Gauss

I was watching Amercan Beauty last night and it got me thinking. Would You consider Lester depressed in the beginning of the movie? Apart from his morning **** in the shower he was numb to life.

I reckon I know quite a few people in a similar state to him, plodding along in conpletely apathy and numbness to life, just living for the sake of living, just wondering really if that would be called depression.

who what when

Would have classed him more as unhappy than depressed to be honest

Moved from After Hours

Film charter now applies

SubBusted

Achieved his goals and didn't know what to do next.

Sad Professor

I don't think Lester had any goals until he saw Angela. He was an inauthentic person. His goals were the goals of middle class society. Everything he had meant nothing because he never really wanted it. He loses everything at the end, including his life, but at least he's not a loser anymore.

kitakyushu

Lester basically let himself fall into the rat-trap thanks to his wife. Carolyn was leading that marriage and had designed this pointless existence they were living. Lester had convinced himself that this was either a (a) 'normal' life or (b) an inescapable existence.

A lot of people think Lester was just going thru his "midlife crisis" with all the markers (buying the car, chasing the young girl) but I think it was more than that. In reality he was just waking up and getting back to what had made him happy in the first place.

Anyway ,you can sum up his whole pov with the scene :

LESTER
(looks around room)
Well, now I know how you can afford all this equipment. When I was your age, I flipped burgers all summer just to be able to buy an eight track.
RICKY
That sucks.
LESTER
No actually, it was great. All I did was party and get laid.
(smiles)
I had my whole life ahead of me...

nervous_twitch

It's kind of similar to the focus of Revolutionary Road in a way; the idea that some people wake up at 40 in the middle of suburbia with a nice house and 2.5 kids and realise that this was not the life they had imagined for themselves.

TCP/IP

I know this is totally against the point of the thread but what an amazing film only watched again recently. What a film.

jpm4

kitakyushu wrote: »

Lester basically let himself fall into the rat-trap thanks to his wife. Carolyn was leading that marriage and had designed this pointless existence they were living. Lester had convinced himself that this was either a (a) 'normal' life or (b) an inescapable existence.

A lot of people think Lester was just going thru his "midlife crisis" with all the markers (buying the car, chasing the young girl) but I think it was more than that. In reality he was just waking up and getting back to what had made him happy in the first place.

Anyway ,you can sum up his whole pov with the scene :

I flipped burgers when I was a teenager too and not a chance in hell I would ever want to do that again! I always felt sorry for the wife and daughter characters in that film. I guess it means I am well and truly married to the rat race but I always found Spacey's character pretty unsympathetic - if we knew that character in real life would we root for him so much I wonder?

Littlehorny

Know a couple of lads who have married/gotten involved with dominating bitches and after a few years they would remind you of Lester.

Mickeroo

jpm4 wrote: »

I flipped burgers when I was a teenager too and not a chance in hell I would ever want to do that again! I always felt sorry for the wife and daughter characters in that film. I guess it means I am well and truly married to the rat race but I always found Spacey's character pretty unsympathetic - if we knew that character in real life would we root for him so much I wonder?

Probably not, but thats true of a very large amount of film characters when you think about it. Hell, a lot of the time its actually better when the character is a bit questionable in their actions yet the film is good enough to make you root for them regardless.

jpm4

Mickeroo wrote: »

Probably not, but thats true of a very large amount of film characters when you think about it. Hell, a lot of the time its actually better when the character is a bit questionable in their actions yet the film is good enough to make you root for them regardless.

True enough, but I can't figure out why in this film we are clearly supposed to sympathise with Lester, but not his wife who is obviously going through the same issues/frustrations as he is.