﻿Poor rich people. A striking number of films and
shows today are answering the age old question,
“Can money really buy happiness?” with a resounding “No.”
Everywhere we turn, we’re seeing unhappy rich characters,
whether in Succession, The White Lotus, The Menu,
or Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
“I know it’s probably hard to have sympathy for the poor, tortured billionaire”
So even though today we’re pushed constantly to lust after having money in
our culture – and having enough money is obviously important – when
is it too much? And why does lots of money still turn you
into a bad or miserable person? “This rich people shit is weird.''
Spoilers ahead for the Menu, Glass Onion and Triangle of Sadness!
More Money, More Problems As a culture, we are obsessed with
money and watching people who have it onscreen.
We love reality shows that peek into how the other half lives, from older
examples like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous to Cribs to newer shows like
Real Housewives and The Kardashians. But one of the reasons we enjoy these
properties is due to the semi-absurdity of many of the stars’ crises, which
couldn’t exist in less wealthy environments.
“The souffle is probably falling in the kitchen.”
It’s certainly true that money can solve a lot of problems but it can
also create new problems, particularly if you’re part of the super rich class.
In an article for The Guardian, a therapist for hyper-wealthy clientele
notes that having a lot of money can often lead to fears that people
in your inner circle are just using you. “And Anie, Andie used to tell me
the truth…now it’s all fake smiles and agendas”
And the rich characters we see onscreen are overwhelmingly isolated.
In the opening credits of The White Lotus season two, the picture shown over the
name of Jennifer Coolidge – who plays wealthy, emotionally lost Tanya – is of a
woman stuck in a tower, accompanied only by a monkey on a chain.
The image mirrors Tanya’s intense loneliness, the way she feels trapped
by her wealth, and the way she has only chained pets like her assistant
Portia around her. “But I feel like that if you really
loved me you wouldn’t leave.” At the same time, many of these
rich characters who fear no one loves them for them directly create a
situation where they only allow people to interact with them as a “rich person”
– reinforcing the very same kind of transactional relationships that
they’re afraid of. “I want you to stay… stay close
cause I might need you. But just lay low.”
In The White Lotus season 1, Tanya dangles a business
opportunity in front of working-class hotel staff Belinda so that she’ll care
for her, but when she gets preoccupied by a new relationship with Greg,
she suddenly leaves Belinda and the business plan behind.
“I latch on to somebody and then I use my money to control them
....It's not healthy for me." The humor in her words – that this
behavior isn’t healthy for her – is revealing, because it’s so clear
she’s not thinking at all about what’s healthy for Belinda or
anyone else. And too much wealth can also
result in moral deficiency because it encourages a lack of regard
for others. The rich person’s disconnect from the
world everyone else lives in extends beyond buying a $43 billion dollar app
just for the hell of it or racing other billionaires to see who can get to
space first, it can also include the simple act of facing consequences
for your actions. Though as we’ve seen on film
and in television, the rich are able to get away with a lot because they
can pay off anyone who could enforce punishment.
“I’ll pay you a billion dollars if you tell me which one of them
tried to kill me.” The desire to do the right thing
becomes weaker as they realize that they can essentially do whatever they
want, and can lead to them callously putting other people’s lives
and livelihoods on the line. “You get to do what you want,
the authorities can’t really touch you.” Infinity Pool creates a sci-fi world
where the wealthy vacationers of a fictional island pay the local
government to clone them so that they can commit wild, hedonistic
crime sprees before safely heading back home, while their doubles pay
the price of arrest and execution. “We paid the detective to make
another double just to have a little fun with you.”
In The Menu, rich Tyler hires Margot, an escort, to come with
him to a mysterious, fancy dinner, but because he’s paying her, he
thinks he can treat her however he wants.
“Tyler, you need to apologize to me right now, you cannot
speak to me that way” ”Actually I can because ding dong,
I’m the one that’s paying so maybe shut up and eat.”
And he even knew beforehand that she likely wouldn’t make it out of
the hellish night alive. “So you hired her knowing
she’d die?” “Yes.” In Succession, Kendall Roy is
tortured by his culpability for driving intoxicated with a waiter in the car
and leaving the young boy to drown after the car crashes into water.
But tellingly, his father doesn’t care in the slightest, except that Kendall’s
guilt is a gift he can use to bring his wayward son back
under his thumb. “A rich kid kills a boy. A sad,
little detail at a lovely wedding, where father and son are reconciled.”
Just as Cameron gradually grooms his newly rich college friend into
becoming a more dishonest, philanderous person, there’s a
sense that being a true member of the wealthy elite means getting
rid of those pesky moral compunctions that middle-class
people get hung up on. “It’s time for you to shed that
disgusting larval mind of yours and find out what kind of a
creature you really are.” Rich characters might soothe
their consciences for their typically