A recent review of my protagonist reads "He seems to realize that something is wrong, but doesn't put any effort into fixing the problems of his life." -- Is it wrong for my character to be lethargic anti-hero, can he NOT be melancholic?
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I think there’s a difference between a hero being depressed and a hero being passive. A hero must actively pursue their goal, even if that goal is to stay under the covers all day. Otherwise there’s nothing for the audience to watch. Your reviewer likely took umbrage with the inactivity of your protagonist, not necessarily his outlook on life.
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My humble opinion: Your protagonist and your antitaganost must be active critters - they must move in your MOVIE - it's called action.
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There is a bit to unpack.
If they are passive, things happen to them, rather than as a reaction to their actions, that is bad. Change that.
If there is a bad situation and they refuse to address it, that is the corner stone of a great tragedy. Someone is dating a Junky for instance. He is dragging her downhill. But she refuses to make the changes in her life, like leaving him, tragedy.
Lethargic is boring, unless in a comedy. Look at “Shawn of the dead”.
I wouldn’t call them an Anti-Hero. For me an Anti-Hero is a person that does bad things for self interest. Not just a bad hero.
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Your character is "Just making do with life" when they already have an inkling that something isn't quite right but nevertheless are just carrying on living in auto pilot. However, if they are not going to do something about it themselves, someone or something has to force them to take action. Your protagonist sounds passive for a reason EG Frightened to take action in case it fails OR the void they most obviously feel puts them into denial instead of admission, a sort of comfort blanket. It is a fact of life that some people will never change unless forced to, so a character like this could be like in a screenplay, so the change must come from some forced crucible test. I prefer to write non passive characters but these character do exist, so give them a boot via tests/challenges and surprise the readers.
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@Jon Also there are some scenarios where protagonist is NOT meant to change such as some comedies where character inflicts chaos on everything and everyone they touch yet remain passive themselves Eg Mr Bean, Laurel n Hardy, Some mothers do have em etc. Some serious Westerns have “A stranger rides through town theme” where the whole community changes in some way, except the hero, who rides away untouched by events. The bottom line is what is the story world your hero in?
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Of course you can have that. The trick is in the execution. Make him make decisions against his melancholy to create drama, for instance.
I think that it also depends on the genre of the script. Like if it’s a comedy there is hella comedy lines in something like that.
The question is, is he relatable to the audience? I knew someone who wrote a script that was autobiographical but didn't tell anyone it was about her and the writers' group we attended just ripped into it because the character was with an abusive partner and wasn't taking her daughter and leaving. The rest of the group (and therefore the audience) just couldn't relate to a character who would stay with someone who was abusive. So for what it's worth, I think you want to make sure the audience can say that's what they would do in that situation or relate in some way.
A little off topic. The film Patrick was interesting. The title character is in a coma and does nothing but stares.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_(1978_film)
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I'd say you know your characters. There is no right or wrong, as long as it's true to the character. We're allowed to be flawed, imperfect humans.