April 2001 American Beauty Psychology Analysis American Beauty depicts modern dysfunctional families that appear to be happy on the outside, while on the inside they have tremendous deep-rooted problems. The movie begins to show many Freudian psychotic traits when unhappy Lester Burnham loses his job and begins a stereotypical male mid-life crisis by buying a red sports car, smoking marijuana, exercising maniacally, and fantasizing about younger women. He lusts after his daughter Jane's best friend a …
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…destine us to mid-life crisis and self-doubting that can cause problems for our families and us. This movie was so powerful because it brought to light the problems that so many families face in the privacy of the home. On the outside it would appear that the families on Robin Hood Trail were typical. Upon closer inspection though, we saw families whose inner conflicts created a situation that was terrible for all in the end.