When you're nearly 50 years old, you see that your former college friends have become successful people in other people' populations:
A politician who became the White House;
A CEO who becomes a public company;
There is also a person who buys an island and has only beach and sex every day.
And although you have a good family, your wife is very content, and your son is about to go to college.
But friends who were once centered around you are now fading you out of the circle.
What kind of mentality will you have?
Brad in the film is facing such a dilemma.
In the dead of night, Brad lost sleep again;
His wife, Melanie, thinks he is anxious about her son's college tuition;
In fact, he was frustrated by his own life.
He taught all his experience to the only employee who did not approve of his career and had recently left.
It is said that thirty stands, forty is not confused, and fifty is known for destiny. At nearly fifty years old, he not only did not know his destiny, but he was even confused about his current life. Having passed the age of struggle, there will be no more windfalls in life. He felt like he was being abandoned by the world.
The next day, he went to the university with his son for an interview, and he only had a silver card at the airport and could not enjoy the membership service.
Looking at the ordinary people in the waiting room, Brad felt that he was different from them, so he wanted to upgrade.
But even if he is willing to pay $1600 to upgrade, he still has no right to upgrade, because he bought a special ticket.
On the plane, he thought his friends had private jets and he was still buying a special fare, and frustration continued to surround Brad.
Seeing this, most viewers will feel that the male protagonist is sick and moaning.
It's good to have a plane, and many people have never been on a plane in their entire lives.
Compared with the young people of our generation who were crushed by mortgages, the male protagonists who have cars, houses and small deposits are simply in the blessings.
But Brad doesn't like to compare himself to the poor, he always competes with the people at the tip of his pyramid, which shows how much pressure there is.
At dinner, he talked to his son Troy and found that his son was about to interview at Harvard University.
Frustrated, Brad immediately found a sense of accomplishment in his son.
What a proud thing to have such a good son.
That night, he dreamed that his son was admitted to Harvard, and the whole family was very happy.
But his dreams soon shattered, and he fantasized about Troy becoming a big star in the future, but when talking about him, he realized that Troy's success seemed to have little to do with him, and his life was still so failed. So he took off the picture of his son on the wall in disappointment.
Of course, all this is his dream and fantasy. He is now eager to show off his son to those around him.
Hope is always accompanied by disappointment, and Troy misremembers the interview date, which was actually the day before.
Troy was not disappointed in this, and the child's mentality was still very good. But Brad began looking for a relationship hoping to give Troy another chance to interview.
As he connects with his friends, Brad discovers that their lives aren't as glamorous as they look.
The politician classmate in the White House, in fact, his students hated his class very much;
The CEO of a public company only once owned a private jet, and now he is facing complaints and his 3-year-old is sick;
Classmates who buy kojima and retire at the age of 40 are actually quite messy, and may also have bad habits.
In fact, being faded out of the circle by friends is not necessarily a bad thing.
Life is only so long, everyone's life is different, values will change with it, be faded out of the circle, is your life has no intersection.
When you envy the luxurious life of others, others are envious of your ordinary happiness.
Brad in the movie is finally healed.
This is the movie, there are no ups and downs, most of it is Brad's inner monologue. Usually the fewer things, the more difficult it is to express, and only monologues and rare content can express emotions clearly, which shows the powerful production skills of the film.
If I didn't have the patience to watch it, it would feel boring; but seeing the end, I was healed by this movie.
In the Internet age, we have seen many truths and lives, and there are only a few people who can be envied. Everyone is trying to live their lives well, and while we're not over half a hundred years old, and we've been faded out of the circle by many people over the past two or three decades, it's not a bad thing.
I hope that my 50-year-old can be as successful as the male protagonist.