"In "This Is 40," which premiered Dec. 21, 2012, Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd play Debbie and Pete, a married couple both about to turn 40 while dealing with struggling businesses, parenting two daughters and trying to rediscover a connection in their marriage. I'd been looking forward to seeing the movie for weeks, knowing my husband and I could use a date night with some comic relief, with some way to focus on someone else's marital problems instead of our own."
"The movie was supposed to be date-night gold: a rom-com about the ups and downs of marriage, the complicated relationships between parents and their kids, and the horrors of turning the big 4-0. I was supposed to laugh along with all the other couples in the movie theater, relieved that I still had a few years before the scenarios like mammograms and colonoscopies became my reality."
A couple attended This Is 40 as a planned rom-com date night while both nearing 40 and parenting two daughters. The film centers on Debbie and Pete confronting business struggles, parenting challenges, and attempts to reconnect in marriage. The viewer expected comic relief and distraction from personal marital issues. An argument before the screening and the characters' persistent bickering made scenes about therapist-guided communication and midlife anxieties feel painfully familiar. The movie failed to produce laughter and instead intensified recognition of failing attempts at counseling. The screening became a poignant marker: the last film seen together before the couple's divorce.
Read at HuffPost
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