Lester is a creep but you are supposed to understand how he could end up that way and in the end he does the right thing and his fatherly instincts take over -
He is hurt by his wife and daughter and didn't realize he hurt them too - they are all sort of victims of the American Dream and Madison Avenue BS
The film is not about perfect people - it is about real people - Lester is a hero only because he is willing to see how screwed up he is - and try to work through it -
And he pays the intimate price in the end

Lester was a very twisted beep.

Lester_Burnham_Risen, I think your comments are bizarre.
Ricky, OK, is a voyeur with a thousand yard stare. He has, or claims, some interest in art and is cool in a detached kind of way but he utterly unfairly makes out that Jane, obsessed with her boob size and angry all the time, is somehow more authentic than Angela who has been inwardly dying for a long time, not because of personality failings of her own (as Lester says, he'd be lucky to have her, temporarily or permanently) but because the average person unfairly fears her Lolitaish wrapping (perhaps because they sense an emotional intelligence, albeit a naturally scared one, in Angela that society generally prefers to imagine doesn't exist in young girls).
And you want to make some completely paedophilic comment that Angela's over the hill for your tastes? This is American Beauty, not Lolita.

She had finally had someone ie Ricky stand up to her and explain the REAL American Beauty about life so it was way past the time she HAD to get laid as she was essentially over the hill and the older she got the more frigid she got and the more "unfriendly" to any possible blokes brave enough to be abused.
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/

Lester having sex with Angela would've probably hurt her, not because she's 17, but she was clearly vulnerable and confused at that moment, nothing more or less.

What the OP doesnt understand is what the character is going through and how this propels his evolution until the end of the movie. Someone already pointed out that evolution, so Ill just talk about why him liking the girls does not make him "a creep". People have sexual urges and fantasies, and his attraction to her is normal within these boundaries. His attraction/adoration towards her is there to show us how much of a loser he is. He has nothing and so when he sees this beautiful sexy girls hes blinded. He starts pulled towards her, but what youre trying to ignore is that when he starts changing he absolutely stops. She was a catalist but not much more. This is not the story about him hunting her down, its the story of Lester going from a numb husk of a man to a happy one.
The proof of that is what everyone here is telling you: he doesnt sleep with her. In the end she is attracted to him and his fantasies come true. He still has the hots for her but in spite of that, he backs down because he realizes its not right. What creep would do that? Youre not seeing the shades of grey, its like you were watching another movie or only the first 20 minutes of it. Youre condeming the charachters sexuality and thats childlish. People are attracted to others all the time and have fantasies, even if theyre married or if its morally wrong. Thats not only normal but its healthy to admit. The creep factor comes in when people act on it and hurt others.

All the xharacters in this movie are laughable, unbelievable caricatures and cliches. This movie is nothing else than the Hollywood Regressive Elite looking down their collective noses at the middle class, or at least at some hysterically vilifying cartoon thereof.

beep Lester IS a beep pedophile. Get over it. And quit blaming WOMEN for his problems. His problems are his own and he can't own up to it because the truth is, he's a little BOY in a man's body. And given the entitlement afforded to straight, white men, he thinks that he SHOULD own whatsername's body, so he becomes his own chickenhawk. I'm GLAD he eats it in the movie. Men like that NEED to "walk toward the light", so to speak. And NO, old men marrying younger women is NOT totally ok..they see it as their privilege. They need to grow the beep up.

"caught in the current of history"
"Carl Jung"
Just more evidence that this is a movie for stupid people who want to pretend they're intelligent.

Yeah, the addition of autocorrect (autof0kk) to my web browser has been fun.
What hump?

"Styler"
Free Styler 2k16!

Well, I turn 42 (same age as Lester) in a couple of months and at the time the film came out I was what 26? Well at 26 I was blown away by the movie because I could see how true it was. However, back then I was still happily married and back then I didn't see Carolyn at all in my wife (Or Styler from Breaking Bad).
The main character is a person caught in the currents of history. Men were not made to be broken and flabby working at desks (but we can't all be construction workers addicted to pain killers or the Marlboro man dying of cancer now can we?)
Lester was probably given the name Lester because it's like Hustler's character "Chester the Molester" but Lester is not a perv, he is just a regular guy having a hard time in life. Scientists are now proving that people go through various developmental periods - they now say (1) Adolescence (2) teens and 20s (3) 40s and (4) 70s where they grow and change.
Lester just is going through a self-reflective period that Carl Jung saw in his patients but he doesn't have anyone to help him figure it out so he struggles, but in the end he makes the right decision.
What hump?

This message has been deleted.

hiitsmewutsup-953-300236 wrote:
"I used to love this as a kid, believe it or not. The characters were so lively in a sitcom-y way, but the addition of tits and profanity made it a little naughty- like an HBO original. I'm reading the script now, and I never realized what a repugnant little beep Lester is. So pompous, and smug about how enlightened he's become! That's what happens when you embrace your inner pedophile, I guess. As unsympathetic as Carolyn is, he is absolutely largely at fault for the dissolution of their marriage."
You just don't get it. You sound just as messed up as Carolyn and Jane. They were both the reasons for Lester's demise. At least Lester realized that making love to Angela was wrong and acted more like a father figure to her, something that Jane wouldn't allow her dad to do with her. Lester had the misfortune to live with an unloving family.

With so many movies establishing their characters as role models and Mary Sues, it's important to understand that sometimes movies want to make flawed characters so the viewer can relate to their flaws. This is similar to what F Scott Fitzgerald did with The Great Gatsby.

@lukelovesfilm28
Jesus Christ, you're gross.
There's nothing wrong with old men marry young women if both parties are of consent. Forcing women into young marriage b/c they have no other choice is not progress.
You sound like you have no brain, just a cock to think with. Lester isn't 19he's 45, and the girl he changes his whole life to beep is a messed up girl his kid's age.

This strange, petty hatred for men who like younger women is a very new phenomenon, created by SJWs to further condemn male sexuality as evil. We have 19 year old lesbians who are fighting for the ability to date their 16 year old girlfriends. That's ok but not when it's a male in love with a female. I mean, 20 years ago, everyone was totally accepting of old men marrying really young women.
And Lester is a human being. He is not a fcking robot, programmable to respond to everyone and everything, one way and one way only. And I wouldn't have him any other way. Who wants to watch a character that is morally perfect?? That sounds boring as hell to me.

eqdealerguy:
Reading this post of yours, I recalled a favorite novel of mine: 'Jernigan' by David Gates.
Underrated, sadly unknown, written by a guy whose day job was an arts & entertainment critic.
The narrator, Pete Jernigan, is a horrible person but he knows he is a horrible person, berating himself but unable to quit, as he goes on about his life. Talk about self-loathing but somehow still compelling.
If you dislike obscure literary references you might not like it. But from what you write here, I think you might get a kick out of it.
Example:
"I guess it's a Catch-22"
Obnoxious guy (Jernigan himself): Something Happened.
"How did you know???"
This is one of the less-obscure. I'm sure I have not caught them all, and most likely never will, but it makes it all the more fun to re-read once in a while. (Especially since I was 16 when I first read the thing. I now have mixed feelings about giving this book to a teenager) You don't have to get the refs to appreciate the book but it does add to the enjoyment - bitingly satiric.
David Gates (not the musician). Jernigan, the novel. Remember!! I think it was first published in 1991. I wish more people knew this book. People who like American Beauty would like this.

Uh, that idiotic floating bag garbage was the movie being incredibly pretentious l, not making some deep and insightful commentary on such.

No, you're just a self-loving idiot with tertible taste.

This message has been deleted.

That was sort of the symbol of being pretentious.
It's the word pretentious that was pretentious and just now you are Carefully Taught by all those MS B type schoolteachers to say iconic.
WHAT?

That was sort of the symbol of being
pretentious
.
It's the word pretentious that was pretentious and just now you are Carefully Taught by all those MS B type schoolteachers to say iconic.
For word of the month see Night's The Happening with the math
teacher
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/

I thought this was overrated a decade ago.
I just flashed on a popular parody, of the kid calling the windy plastic bag beautiful. That was sort of the symbol of being pretentious. Now? I guess few people would get it.