"Brad's Midlife Crisis" is a small production film released in 2017. Although director Mike White is not well-known to the domestic audience, the two producers are famous. One is Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt, yes, that is the predecessor of Angelina Jolie, his representative work There are eye-catching blockbusters such as "Seven Deadly Sins", "Benjamin Button", "Fight Club", and another Dee Gardner is also quite powerful. His representative works include "12 Years a Slave" and "12 Years a Slave", which won three Oscars. "The Time Traveler's Wife" was a huge hit.
Although "Brad's Midlife Crisis" is a niche movie, the anxiety and unwillingness that plague middle-aged people is very close to life. Seeing the master announce Ladd is like seeing himself in life. Like us, he regrets the lost youth and is confused for not having achieved great success. There is a shadow of Brad in every one of us.
Socrates said that only by knowing yourself can you know life.
This sentence couldn't be more appropriate for Brad.
Through a series of events in the process of Brad choosing which university to attend for his son, the film shows Brad's anxiety about getting ahead, and reflects the helplessness of middle-aged people who are unable to change the status quo under the crisis. After experiencing the triple emotional baptism of his son's indifference, his wife's optimism, and his friends' sincerity, Brad finally became enlightened, let go of his body, and realized that ordinary life is his main theme, and his love for the world is still wonderful. In order to get out of the vicious circle created by oneself and return to the story of the self.
The film begins with Brad, 47, tossing and turning next to his sleeping wife, feeling that everything sucks:
The only employee of the charitable organization he worked for resigned after he learned all his skills. He was both a marshal and a soldier, soliciting donations and investing everywhere, suffering from all kinds of scorn, depression and failure.
The house I currently live in is too small, how can I improve it? A terrible thought popped into his mind. If his parents-in-law died, they would be able to inherit the inheritance and get rid of the current dwelling completely.
The most unbearable thing for him was that his four best classmates in college were either rich or expensive, and all of them lived well and lived a noble life admired by everyone in the upper class.
Take a look at yourself again, your career and life are just a piece of shit, but you are helpless and depressed, and everything is not satisfactory. Brad couldn't help being distraught, tossing and turning in endless torment.
Through the technique of line drawing, the film allows us to see Brad's struggles in the spiritual world under his calm appearance. Brad's anxiety and his son's indifference, Brad's unwillingness and his wife's satisfaction, Brad's jealousy and the sincerity of his classmates, these people's calm naturally contrasts with Brad's turbulent heart. , the middle-aged mediocrity is vulnerable.
01. Brad and his son Troy: father and son in life, exchange of identities in the spiritual realm
Brad's son Troy is facing high school graduation, and choosing his favorite university has become a top priority for the whole family. Therefore, Brad accompanied his son from the small city of Sacramento to Boston for a college interview.
For more than ten years, Brad neglected his son's growth while underappreciated, and he was obviously absent-minded about everything about Troy. On this trip to choose a school, father and son had the opportunity to really sit down and talk. Inadvertently, he discovered that his son's musical talent is quite high, and he is likely to be admitted to Harvard. After knowing this situation, his eyes lit up and his mood brightened. If his son can go to Harvard, he will save a beautiful game in his failed life. , and also have the capital to show off in front of classmates.
When they came to Harvard, they found that they missed the interview time. Brad ignored his son's dissuasion, found the interview staff, and asked why they didn't give Troy a chance. Do you know how good he is?
Poor parents in the world. In order to get his son to Harvard, Brad had to bow his head and ask for help from his hated college classmate Craig, now a socialite and a visiting professor at Harvard. Under his mediation, Troy re-entered the interview, and was appreciated by well-known music professors, and was accepted under the door.
Brad invited Craig to show his gratitude. During the meal, some Craig fans asked for a group photo. Brad's long-standing unhappiness suddenly erupted. He asked Craig's university friends why they marginalized him? Cracker was very puzzled and asked him why he thought this way. He and his classmates always regarded him as a good brother and never did anything to downplay him. Brad thinks Craig is lying and walks away.
Returning to the small hotel where the father and son lived, Brad was in a bad mood. He looked at his son, and his anger that was not taken seriously rose in his heart. Troy expressed his feelings and opinions on this. He said, it really embarrassed me when you scolded me in front of so many people at Harvard. I was thinking that if I went to Harvard, I would not be able to lift my head up in front of my classmates, thinking that people in the school will always remember this It's so bad, I think people will laugh at me for it. But, you know, no one will remember it because everyone is thinking about their own business.
The only person thinking about you is me, and if anyone's opinion needs your attention, it's me. because I love you.
Troy's words not only made Brad ponder, but also made us realize that the fantasy of being in the center of the stage, illuminated by dazzling lights, and being the center of attention, is just self-deception. We are all ordinary people. Unlike celebrities, we will be on the hot search when we eat and go shopping. You are not that important, and others do not have so much energy to pay attention to your life.
I have seen a sentence and I agree with it: I realize that my parents are mediocre, I am mediocre, and my children are mediocre.
Although Troy was young, his cognition of life was indifferent and detached, and he was cynical about his father. He expressed his love with visible family affection, which made Brad feel warm and caring. He euphemistically told his father that only Do your own thing and don't care too much about what others think. The knot that plagued Brad was untied by his son, and he finally understood that the family and the people around him were the ones he needed to pay attention to, and the people who really paid attention to him.
02. Brad and his wife Melanie: partners in the same bed, the collision and reversal of contentment and cynicism
Brad's wife, Melanie, who works in a government agency, is an optimist and is very satisfied with her current work life. Her husband graduated from a prestigious university and has a relaxed and stable job. Her son is handsome and sensible, with excellent academic performance. The family lives in a small city of Sacramento, has a house of her own, and lives in an orderly manner. Everything is what she likes.
But Brad thinks his wife is too easy to be content. She doesn't have big ambitions, and she doesn't want to make progress. She also pulls his back, making him immersed in the gentle village and unable to extricate himself. Brad feels that his wife lacks encouragement and encouragement for him. Spurs did not give him the motivation to forge ahead. Even the tomato soup he cooked for his family at will, Melanie did not hesitate to praise. He attributed his failure to Melanie's contentment with mediocre life, which weakened his ambition to expand.
He couldn't help thinking of his college classmates. Jason married a wealthy wife. Her father introduced Jason to many important resource clients and brought him into the circle of the rich, and his social status gradually became prominent. Craig's wife, who is very prestigious in her own right, competes with each other in their respective fields and competes with each other, becoming the driving force behind each other's success.
Although the Breed family lived a middle-class life without food and clothing, in his view, it was nothing short of poverty and shabbyness. Only as high as his classmates can achieve success is the sign of success. But his wife Melanie felt that ordinary people's lives were warm and real, and that was enough.
After analyzing all the objective factors of failure, Brad finally realized that he couldn't blame Melanie because he and his classmates chose different mates. It was also an excuse to attribute the failure to the fact that his wife did not give him enough encouragement. Not being aggressive is his fault, not his wife's.
Accepting Melanie's ordinary and sincere love and cherishing everything he has are what he should really value in the future.
03. Brad and his friends, the good brothers sleeping on the upper bunk, the intertwined cognition of sincerity and jealousy
Brad had four friends during his college days. He was the soul of the five. He was liked by respected professors because of his outstanding performance. After graduating, the path of life has changed dramatically.
Nick became a Hollywood blockbuster director, living a life of lavish money. Jason has his own hedge fund, owns three villas, and is very rich. Billy sold his technology company at the age of 40, and lived a free life on the island with all kinds of beauties. Craig worked in the White House, wrote many best-selling books, was a hit on TV, and was a visiting professor at Harvard.
One by one, they are wealthy, rich and beautiful, and have everything they need. Then look at yourself being blocked by the former upper bunk brother. When I went to Boston, I wanted to upgrade the economy class to first class, and put on a show in front of my son. I was also indifferently rejected by the staff because I bought a discounted ticket from the Internet.
When my son's application to Harvard University was blocked, because he had no personal connections, he could only ask for help from his annoying classmate Craig. On the one hand, it was for his son's future, and more importantly, he was able to show off in front of his classmates that he had cultivated a genius, and a successful student. Students shorten the distance.
In fact, Jason told him about the privacy of his family in a low mood, Craig never marginalized him, and Billy didn't feel that he was superior to him. The classmates are still the same classmates, and Brad is no longer the Brad of the past. Seeing a classmate on the cover of an authoritative magazine or talking on the screen, he felt like he had been punched in the chest, and it felt like the whole world was exposing his scars.
In the monologue, Brad sighed that time flies and that he has achieved nothing, but he stopped at the entanglement and anxiety in his heart, and in jealousy and depression, he missed appreciating all the beauty around him.
There is a very interesting plot in the movie. Craig, an old classmate, helped him arrange for his son to go to Harvard for a re-interview, and was eventually accepted by Troy's favorite music professor. Brad wanted to sit at the center of the banquet and was rejected by the restaurant. As soon as Craig showed up, he was led directly to where Brad wanted to sit. The foreman also poured wine for them both. The jealousy from the past erupted in an instant, and asked Craig why he had a small group to exclude him? Craig was very surprised and said, we've never done this before, how could you think that? In my heart, you have always been the same. Brad thought he was lying.
In Brad's eyes, the sincerity of classmates is all a show, and his jealousy is like a devil, coming out from time to time to make him uncomfortable. It turned out that the sincerity of the classmate was the same as before, and it was his cognition that changed color.
04. Brad and himself, contradictory two-faced people, the anxiety of mediocrity and the relief of self-redemption
1. I fantasize about my son's success to stand out among my peers, and I am instantly jealous of my son's success, hoping that this kind of success belongs to him. Fantasizing that his son mocked himself on TV shows made him dwarfed, so the joy of his son attending Harvard was also diluted.
2. Looking at the young and promising Harvard sister of his son, Brad seems to see himself when he was young. He points out the country and is full of passion. He even sneaks out of the hotel while his son is asleep and talks with the girl pretending to meet by chance, but the girl After listening to his complaints about life, he sneered: Are you content, you still feel that the world revolves around you at the age of 50?
3. When he heard that Jason's private jet was rented by the company, and when he learned that Billy, who was playing with beauties on the beach, was troubled by drugs, Brad felt some relief and balance in his heart.
4. Brad chose to start a business with passion from breaking a stable life. Later, he said to everyone, don't be idealistic, the more money you make, the better. If you want to realize your dreams, you must be Bill Gates. If you don't have money, you have no dreams. If time goes back 30 years, everything is possible for me. After his fantasy succeeds, he walks to the beach with two beauties.
Epilogue
A writer once said that if a person can't live the way he wants to live, one day you will have to think the way you want to live.
Brad was calm and calm on the surface, but deep down there was unease and powerlessness. When a person reaches middle age, time is like a fast-forward song. The speed is very fast but you can't hear what is being sung. Everything is about to settle, but nothing can be accomplished in your lifetime. Want to fight at an embarrassing age, but let indecision dominate life.
At the end of the film, Brad gave up eating with friends, returned to Troy, and listened to music quietly with his son, feeling the beauty of life. Looking at the performers on the stage, he felt calm and relaxed when he thought that his son was about to usher in a passionate life. It turns out that everyone has their own world. Although the spotlight shines on others, it does not prevent him from loving this world.
Li Dan said, if you don't like the era you live in, you only have pain.
Therefore, it is enough to cherish the people around you and grasp what you have and care about.
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