This is 40

This is 40 movie centres on the marriage life experience of an American family, Pete and Debbie. The film shows the relationship between these married couples as characterized by stressful experiences compounded by each person reaching 40 years of age. Albert Brooks, John Lithgow, and Megan Fox appear in supportive roles (Netflix, 2012). After years of life in marriage, Pete and Debbie tend to be approaching a milestone meltdown. Marriage marks the commencement of people living together for continuity due to emotional attachments, rights, and responsibilities. As the couple struggles to balance relationship romance, parents, careers, and children in their hilarious ways, they are responsible for figuring out how they can comfortably enjoy the rest of their married lives. The experience of matrimonial can either be successful or in vain. The film “This is 40,” is a sincere and heartening entertainment presentation about the rewards and challenges of marriage and parenthood with disappointments of midlife and how it impacts their marriage, family life, and sense of themselves in the modern and changing age.

According to Gingras et al. (2021), marriage denotes a social, economic, political, and spiritual bond between two individuals instituted on love, companionship, and trust. People perceive marriage as something that can hopefully link a person with another one for life and in a manner that they can assume the overall pleasure of growing old together while fulfilling different roles such as parenting. As such, marriage life denotes a bond that connects couples with love, tolerance, harmony, and support (Bryan, Christine & Theodore, 2017). However, there is no specific secrete to a successful marriage. The little-known secrets of succeeding in a relationship entail finding the person and choosing to enjoy all imperfections and differences, thereby making marriage life smooth and pleasurable. The film, “This is 40,” brings out Pete and Debbie as two individuals who love each other and are passionate about raising their two daughters (Netflix, 2012). However, unanticipated conflicts have gradually been eroding their affection. Every time they realize they are slipping towards the verge of their rope; nevertheless, there is something that keeps reminding them of how much they love and care for each other, thereby prompting them to reconcile, forgive each other and try once more. For instance, when the couple learns that Debbie is pregnant, they both embrace the good news, which they perceive as an unexpected blessing and a fruit of their relationship.

The theoretical concepts of marriage denote an aspect of problem-solving whereby one must find a resolution to misunderstandings between people living together (Bryan, Christine, and Theodore, 2017). Problem-solving is an indispensable concept of marriage, and effective communication plays a pivotal role, whereby couples require acting as genuine friends responsible for understanding and correcting one another in varied situations. Married couples should uphold a high level of openness where no one hides anything from the other. As such, both individuals should feel comfortable living together, sharing ideas, and airing out their tribulations to each other, and ultimately together, look for a viable solution (Wagner et al., 2019). The storyline of “This is 40” movie confirms how people in marriage constantly disappoint each other, making life difficult, but communicating, questioning, correcting, encouraging one another, and assuming parenting roles serve as a problem-solving strategy. In a poignant instant where Charlotte interrupts a domestic dispute, saying, “I’m sick of everybody fighting.” A replicating confrontation later emerge, and Sadie tells her parents, “You want me to be perfect, and all you do is fight” (Netflix, 2012). Therefore, it is sometimes from the mouths of the loving couples that the movie affirms family and marriage, even when these love-based relationships tend to be challenging.

Marriage can be characterized by unprecedented challenges that necessitate making concrete decisions to succeed (Bryan, Christine, and Theodore, 2017; Wagner et al., 2019). In marriages, couples assume managerial accountability in the family. For instance, immediately after her birthday, Debbie implements varied reforms in their household, encompassing sticking to healthy feeding habits, internet restrictions, and the creation of more time to spend together as a family. Sadie condemns the new-fangled regimen, while Pete perceives it as a perfect example of his wife’s urge to control the family. The film ascertains the concepts of communication and openness as the most significant relationship-building fundamentals. For instance, not just by influencing everybody else in the family, Debbie struggles to fix everything that seems to be broken in her family. The film presents Debbie trying to relinquish her undisclosed smoking habit, for example, while instantaneously encouraging Pete and insisting that, as a family, they should embrace and adopt a healthy eating habit. She singly implements limitations on her 13-year-old daughter’s media usage, insisting that she can only spend 30 minutes on the computer (Netflix, 2012). Her daughter Sadie does not take it politely and responds poorly. As a consequence of her response, Debbie removes all her computer-oriented devices, including the iPad, iMac, and iPhone. Correspondingly, Pete and Debbie perceive the situation as jeopardizing the well-being and development of their daughter. Together, the couple scrutinizes Sadie’s Facebook interactions with a male character who has been saying depraved things about her online. Although Sadie perceives it as a privacy invasion, at least her parents are jointly trying to execute their parental and supervisory role on their young and vulnerable 13-year-old daughter.

This is 40 represents a frolicsome and thought-provoking flick about a married couple's midlife crises and how it interferes with their marriage, family life, and sense of themselves. On the surface of middle age, Pete and Debbie live in a big and lavish house with their two daughters, eight-year-old Charlotte and teenage Sadie. Pete is passionate about pursuing his job where he operates on a small record label highlighting rockers from the past, such as Graham Parker, who still have a genuine desire for their music; regrettably, his music albums are not competitive in the market. Debbie has a clothing boutique, and she is constantly trying to figure out which of her employee could have stolen $20,000 from the private enterprise (Netflix, 2012). Since their money-making endeavors are satisfying, married couples live comfortably and engage in solving upcoming issues to maintain their marriage and avoid breaking up. In a relationship, people are entitled to enjoy marital rights and benefits, which are not limited to conjugal pleasures (Bryan, Christine, & Theodore, 2017; Gingras et al., 2021). During Debbie's birthday, her husband Pete comes up with a surprise while they enjoy matrimonial sex. Debbie criticizes her husband's intentions, and he again feels that, in her wife's eyes, he is not doing anything right. However, beneath Debbie's harshness is her severe disappointment over turning 40 years and still having a feeling that she has not yet managed to experience the erotically stimulating passion that she once thought would be a consistent part of her married life by now. The couple tries to solve the issue of sex dissatisfaction by having a sexual escapade behind a steamed shower glass before Pete's Viagra confession. 

Basic marriage concepts, such as communication, problem-solving, children, and influences, are common in almost all marriages. The movie demonstrates that in marriage, couples pursue things that make them feel comfortable, share ideas, encourage each other, assume different roles, and execute problem-solving strategies to avoid breaking up. Although a marriage relationship can experience challenges, such as during the middle age period, married couples should focus on dedicating their lives together, cultivating a lovely family experience, taking pleasure, and raising their children together ethically.

References

Bryan Strong, Christine DeVault, and Theodore F. Cohen. 2017. "The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society. (Thirteenth Edition). Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Gingras, A. S., Lessard, I., Mallette, F., Brassard, A., Bernier‐Jarry, A., Gosselin, P., & de Pierrepont, C. (2021). Couple adaptation to the birth of a child: the roles of attachment and perfectionism. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(3), 581-594.

Netflix. 2012. This is 40. https://www.netflix.com/title/70244168

Wagner, A., Mosmann, C. P., Scheeren, P., & Levandowski, D. C. (2019). Conflict, conflict resolution and marital quality. Paidéia (Ribeirão Preto), 29.