Talk about a midlife crisis movie, Last Chance Harvey is quite the tale! Poor Harvey (played by Dustin Hoffman) is well on his way to losing his job, when he takes off for London to play the role of the under appreciated father-of-the-bride at his daughter’s wedding. Kate (played by Emma Thompson) is a lonely single woman, constantly on-call to a demanding elderly mother. Neither one feels great about their present life.
After a few near misses, they finally share a meal in a Heathrow Airport bar while competing for whom has had the worst day. Harvey wins the argument and eventually Kate, but not before they spend one very long day together exploring London and their separate versions of midlife disillusionment.
I thought the argument at the end of the movie was the clincher, when Harvey struggles to convince Kate to take one more chance on love. Harvey is willing to risk it all for the closeness they share so naturally, but Kate is afraid of the eventual pain involved. In the end she gives in and finally admits: “I’ve gotten too comfortable with disappointment.”
That line says so much about taking one more gigantic risk in midlife. Do we stick with the dependable disappointments, because we simply cannot face getting our hopes up one more time, just to have them dashed?
Or do we dare to risk taking a complete midlife U-turn, and find that we will still survive and thrive in the rarified air of something unique and beautiful, some strange and yet absolutely exhilarating experience like finding yourself in love at age 49!
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We tend to get into comfort zones. Someone once said to me that he felt something in my past has led me to believe life has to be tough. I recognised what he said. Getting out of those comfort zones of course is another story.