This is 40... or just ridiculous people?

         There are no movie theaters in Majuro, so here you are able to download movies for free from the internet legally, so that’s what we do.  Janae and I have watched some great movies lately, and some that were thoroughly frustrating.  She loved The Hobbit and I absolutely hated it.  We both loved Silver Linings Playbook, that film comes highly recommended from the Rusins; however, we both were intensely frustrated by Judd Apatows new movie (I won’t call it a film), This is 40.  We both usually enjoy Apatow’s and Paul Rudd’s films and take them for what they are, hilarious films that deal with pretty small issues.  However, in This is 40 Apatow seems to attempt to get the movie goer to sympathize for a family going through economic hardships, who have clearly done themselves in by their extravagant, prideful and silly economic choices and were in no way innocent victims (as so many were) of the financial crisis.  Rather this couple were the ones who were the problem.  They over extended themselves buying a $90,000 car, 7 figure home and extravagant weekend vacations all while both of their small businesses were doing quite poorly.  They were living the typical generation X lifestyle of “keeping up with the Jones’s,” in which little money is saved and all of their money is spent on self-indulgence. 

           

            There were many people who lost so much during this recent economic collapse.  Many lost much or all of their retirement savings, jobs were lost, homes devalued and people’s futures got murky.  Many people lost so much through no fault of their own.  But the characters in Apatow’s film were not these people.  They weren’t innocent victims, but instead they are representative of how so many individual American’s choices greatly assisted in the downfall of financial collapse of 2008.  Too many Americans had such little money in savings and had invested huge amounts in extravagant homes and took too big of loans out on houses that they had no businesses even thinking of buying in the first place.  Couple these cultural problems of over extension and lack of savings together and the middle class themselves become unsustainable.  Don’t get me wrong, I think there is plenty of blame to go to Wall Street, in fact, they get the majority of the blame in my opinion, but too many Americans were unwilling to take a look in the mirror when the financial crisis came and too eager to blame other people or institutions. 

            To me this shows a lack of practical wisdom that so lacks in a mass consumer society.  Gandhi once said, “Live simply, so that others may simply live.”  The Mahatma understood that economics was not a zero sum game, but he also understood that if you can meet your needs and your wants so easily, then it is your human duty to help others gain some opportunity to be able to do what you have done.  All too often Americans are known for their self-indulgence, rather than for their kindness and compassion.  I hope that we can change this.  I hope that Americans would not just continue to buy and build bigger houses, but assist their fellow man to gain a step up on the ladder of opportunity by supporting efforts for clean water, schools, infrastructure, micro-loans, and more that don’t just help ourselves, but help the world become a more compassionate and understanding place.

            In Apatow’s This is 40, there are unquestionably some amusing moments, but I thought the story was the worst he’s ever written.  He was trying to draw sympathy for people who should have been more sympathetic themselves instead of self indulgent with their material possessions.  I full-heartedly believe that they best way to help yourself is to help others.  Then and only then will you truly find fulfillment in life.  The characters in this film are petty and self-indulged.  At one point the wife has a problem with her husband helping out his own family to the tune of $80,000, but she clearly has no problem driving a BMW that is worth more than that or living in a home that is easily in the million dollar price range.  The characters Apatow creates are not deserving of sympathy, but they are, sadly, all too American.