This Is 40 - 四十不惑

This Is 40 (四十不惑) is an 2012 film. The film stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. The supporting cast include John Lithgow, Megan Fox, Albert Brooks, and Charlyne Yi. The movie's main characters were features as supporting roles in Knocked Up. This Is 40 is all about their life as they turn 40.

Debbie and Peter are now 5 years older and moved into a different stage of their life. Debbie owns a boutique and Pete is running his own record label. Both are having trouble financially at their respective world of ownership. Pete's record company is bleeding money and has no lifeline on the horizon. Debbie's boutique is losing money and she suspects it's own of her loyal workers as she has very nice things that shouldn't be affordable on her pay scale. Pete's having a crisis, just not mid life. The movie explores their marriage, their parenting, their relationship to their parents, and outside temptations.

This is 40 use to be the 30-35 for the pre-generation X era. And goes on a little younger with each generation further back in time to when marriage in your teens and having many kids by 25 was common. So, the title of this movie is really for the 2010s era. The era of starting out a little later and thinking career first before settling down and having a family. A few generations ago, you were any empty nester in your late 30s. Yupe, late 30s. Now, 55-60 is probably the norm. How do you even retire and get around the world when you're still simi-mobile.

Back to the movie. The movie was interesting. I am in a similar situation as them. I haven't hit 40 yet, but its right around the corner and I have kids. I didn't go big and go start my own business, but I have a very satisfying career, as does my wife. We're in a much more stable point in our lives. I don't know how it'll be when my gurls hit their tween and teenage years. But the story was based on many assumptions of the American Dream that has slowly been debunked in the last couple of decades. The 1980s were no joke and the "American Dream" premise of fulfillment through material possession seems like a lifetime ago. That same dream now haunts a the "third" world countries trying to bring their populous out of the farm era.

As the movie goes on, I can't but feel bad that this couple's dreams is stuck in the 1980s. And here we are in 2013 and the values of today are much different. Or its just that my circle doesn't include Debbie and Pete's type of people. Which made it hard to relate.