THE FILM WHICH EXPLAINED DEPRESSION PERFECTLY

"The worst part about having a mental illness is people ask you to behave as if you don't" was written in the diary maintained by Arthur fleck In a film 'Joker(2019) written and directed by Todd Philips. In the last article, I have explained the depression that this term not specifically connected with any kind of emotion it rather is a situation where a person turns Emotionless and don't understand what's happening in his life or what he needs to do to feel normal again. Today I am going to talk about a movie which explains the depression perfectly and portrayed how a person actually feels when he goes into depression. 

Joker is a psychological drama film which displayed the back story of DC's very famous Villain Joker. The concept of the movie is very dark and sensitive. Arthur fleck is the main character who is also The Joker in the film. Film from the very beginning tries to show us that something is very wrong about this person. In one of the opening scenes, he is having a session with a psychiatrist which shows that the mental condition of Arthur is not very well. He is also on some kind of medication. Arthur was facing depression for a long time and the events happen in the film makes his condition even worse. Let me enlighten you further with his character in the film; He is living a poor life with the responsibility of his mother. He also has a dream which he wants to achieve. He has a job which is of a clown where he makes people laugh with his acts and performances. 

Now, what drives him into the depression? The movie shows the story of Gotham city which represents a kind of chaos. The difference between Riches and poor is getting bigger and bigger which is adding fuel to the chaos. His life is not going as he wants to. He wants to become a comedian but deep down he knows that he can't achieve his dream in such poverty but still he writes jokes in his diary which shows that he is actually ambitious. His colleagues make fun of him and sometimes take advantage of him. He is seeing the disappointment in his life for long that he doesn't get surprised with it. He doesn't have any friend either who can know what actually running in his mind. Poverty, disappointments, no achievements made him a very negative shade person. He doesn't have anyone except his mother so he usually dreams about an alternate life like his imaginary girlfriend or him being part of a famous comedy show. He is getting cut off from reality and slowly losing his real identity. 

Now the instances which prove that he was in depression; He was dealing with multiple emotions since long and slowly turned emotionless. In a scene where one of his Colleague cracks a joke and everyone laughs including Arthur but after coming out of the room he suddenly stops laughing which proves he is actually not laughing but acting to laugh just because others were laughing. In another scene where he is watching a comedy performance in a restaurant when other people were laughing on the punches or humorous part of a joke, he was laughing on those lines which were not funny. He was totally emotionless as he didn't even know when to laugh or not, which line is funny or not. He was also an unpredictable person which is a major factor of depression. When a person commits suicide in depression everyone says that it was shocking to hear this which means when a person goes into depression he becomes unpredictable. He loses all the stable state of his mind takes unpredictable decisions. Arthur shows his unpredictability in many scenes like when he killed his mother he doesn't even regret a second after killing and also when he shot the famous TV show host in a live show. He didn't care about consequences and without even thinking about anything he shot the TV show Host. He was carefree also. All these are signs of depression because when a person commits suicide he becomes carefree of his life. You are wrong if you felt that whatever he was doing without thinking was giving him any kind of pleasure. He never felt any pleasure in doing anything. Even he didn't even know what actually

pleasure is. In the last scene when he talks to the psychiatrist in prison he didn't look like he cares about anything he did. Dealing with multiple emotions, getting emotionless, becoming unpredictable all of them are major signs of suffering from depression. 

The character of Arthur fleck which was played by Joaquin Phoenix is undoubtedly one of the most brilliantly written characters. Joaquin Phoenix did full justice with his role and for which he won academy award also. The direction of Todd Philips is also next level direction which keeps the dark subject until the last second of the movie.