In "28 Days", the heroine’s drunkard boyfriend told her categorically:
"No adult is happy! People come to this world, there will be a period of time that life is so good, and then, inevitably When the tragedy strikes, they understand that life is equal to constant loss. We only went through this experience to alleviate the suffering caused by it! For this purpose, some have children, some desperately earn money, and some begin to collect coins, There are also people who can only get themselves drunk."
Life is loss. Hearing my thoughts being spoken by a man who was drunk and confused all day, I almost jumped up from the chair. I don’t know if it’s actually a bit ecstatic. Not only are some people as negative and pessimistic as I am, but they are also so defensive and confident.
I know that thinking like this is logically unreasonable, and it is not healthy for the body and mind. However, at a certain stage of life, this kind of thought seems to be inevitable like a sudden storm.
Let's take a look at Mr. Schmidt: retired, widowed, married. The more life towards the end, it seems that the more lonely. What's more, things don't stop there.
To retire is to retire from a position that you do not love. When I was young, I thought I could accomplish a career and be on the cover of "Time", so I finally had to show my face in the company tabloid. Moreover, the newcomer simply dismissed his experience accumulated over decades of hard work.
Widowed, the wife who is not in love is lost. After decades of being together, some of the habits of the other party become more and more unbearable by myself. When a person is alive, it's that way every day, and when he is gone, it is still hard to suppress grief. I have to climb to the top of the RV late at night, line up the magnetic dolls my wife likes, and cry at the stars in the sky.
Marry a daughter, you marry a second-rate son you don't like. That kid has such an ugly haircut, he can only get a participation award when he participates in a football game, and he can only get a certificate of "Excellent Attendance" in the training class last two weeks. Why marry my baby girl? But the daughter resolutely married, leaving her father: "What? You *now* suddenly want to care about my life?"
Mr. Schmidt returned to his home in silence. The film introduction says: This film tells the story of Mr. Schmidt's search for meaning in life. But I think Schmidt, played by Jack Nicholson, is no longer a seeker. Because although he may have been lost and pained, the face presented to us is a decadent face. As a very humorous passage in the film showed us, two weeks ago he was lying on the sofa and watching TV and was sleepy. Two weeks later, he woke up in the same posture. It is conceivable that at some point in his long life, he gave up his dreams and struggles, and his wife let himself sit down and urinate, then... Sit down.
The daughter's wedding gave Schmidt a sudden explosive force. In order to prevent his daughter from marrying, he drove happily on the road. The results of it? But he still walked back to the downhill path of life-waiting for death, and found that he could not leave any traces in this world.
Of course the film did not end like this, and the film did not intend to end like this from the beginning. Throughout the film is a letter written by Schmidt to an African child named Ndugu. After seeing the public service advertisement on TV, he subsidized the child at a price of 72 cents a day and was asked to write to the child. With this reason, we have the opportunity to hear many inner monologues of Mr. Schmidt, and it is logical to have the last scene of the film: Mr. Schmidt received a reply from the children!
When the voice of an adult woman began to read the letter, a very dark thought came to my mind: the child died of malaria, Mr. Schmidt’s donation was useless, and the film ended.
But our director is obviously not so cruel. The adult women are just reporting to Schmidt about the children's current situation. The letter also attached the children's paintings: blue sky, scorching sun, adults holding the villain's hand.
Old Schmidt cried uncontrollably. I cried too.
I don't know if his tears are real because he realizes that he can still make a difference in this world. But I know that I cried because I saw how simple and beautiful childhood is. You were full of hope and vision for the future at that time, and all this will never return.
What if Ndugu's life improved because of Schmidt? If he could live to Schmidt's age, wouldn't he become another Mr. Schmidt?
So, should we have fun, or continue to look for some kind of meaning?
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