Hollywood Midlife Crisis
The term mid-life crisis was first coined by psychoanalyst Elliott Jacques in 1965 to describe a period of major self-doubt felt by some individuals of middle age as the result of the passing of their youth. Symptoms may include depression, feelings of remorse and searching for some undefined dream or goal. It can affect both sexes, although not all psychologists accept it even exists and it doesn't seem to be present in all cultures.
In fiction, by contrast, a mid-life crisis tends to consist of several pieces of behaviour carried out by middle-aged men in a rash attempt to recapture lost youth (it being limited to men is probably because Most Writers Are Male):
- The purchase of a Midlife Crisis Car - souped-up, expensive and flashy.
- The romantic pursuit of much younger women. Depending on the nature of the work, either hilarity or drama will ensue, and it's notable that the "younger women" in the fictional version have often been played by actresses famed for their beauty.
- The man may well adopt an inappropriately youthful hairstyle or clothes. If he has children, this is guaranteed to embarrass them (they may well approve of the Cool Car).
- More thoughtful middle-aged men may adopt new religious or spiritual beliefs.
As can be seen from the examples, some works have a mid-life crisis as the main engine of their plot; in others, such as soap operas, Status Quo Is God, and so after an episode or two of his crisis, the man will basically go back to normal and behave as if nothing ever happened.
Film
- American Beauty is one of the most famous movie examples. A stressed-out drone with an unhappy marriage quits his job (with large pay-off), buys an expensive car and lusts after a teenage girl.
- You have to feel sorry for Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch. His wife's away. He's stuck at home editing a book about the mid-life crisis and marital dissatisfaction at the seven year mark. And Marilyn Monroe has moved in upstairs...
- Lost in Translation. An ageing actor at a loose end in Tokyo gets involved with a much younger woman, including an attempt to dress to fit in with her friends.
Literature
- In Rabbit Is Rich, a novel in John Updike's Rabbit series, Rabbit Angstrom has become rich, middle-aged and dissatisfied, which includes him becoming enamoured of a friend's younger wife.
- Erast Fandorin goes through this before and during All World's a Stage (when he is 55). He tries to take the thoughtful approach (resolving to learn a new form of art or a new language every year), but he also ends up falling in love with a much younger woman.
- In the Jeeves and Wooster story "Indian Summer of an Uncle", Bertie's Uncle George tries to initiate a May-December Romance. Jeeves diagnoses the problem as an "Indian summer" and notes that it's common for elderly, wealthy Americans to run off with chorus-girls.
Live-Action TV
- Hank Moody in Californication is pretty much the poster boy for this trope.
- Tony DiNozzo from NCIS has been seen going through one.
- It's implied that Martha's father on Doctor Who was going through one, having traded both his car and his wife in for younger models when we first met him.
Newspaper Comics
- In one Calvin and Hobbes Sunday comic, Calvin's dad thinks long and hard about how short life is, and how much time he spends working at a job that he doesn't like at all. He tells his wife that he's thinking of quitting his job and biking full-time. She replies by sarcastically asking if she should ask the bike shop if they'd be interested in sponsoring his mid-life crisis.
- Lighthearted example in Peanuts; Charlie Brown is at Lucy's psychiatric booth:
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Charlie Brown: I'm worried about my dad... Every night he sits in the kitchen eating cold cereal and looking at the pictures in his old high school yearbook. |
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Web Comics
- Summer Winter's recent tattoos, bleach job, piercings, and search for an actual romantic relationship (as opposed to her quarter-century-long string of casual hookups) in the latest[when?] run of Moon Over June is best described as this.