The Land of Steady Habits: Film Review

Released September 14, 2018.

I'm approaching sixty, and I've been watching a number of marriages among my friends disintegrate when their children reach young adulthood.

The Land of Steady Habits is a 2018 film based off a 2014 novel of the same name. Ted Thompson is the book's author, but it's Nicole Holofcenter who writes the screenplay, directs, and co-produces the film.

This film reminded me of Cheever's "The Swimmer," and--indeed--Thompson's novel has been noted to capture the same ennui of Cheever as well as Updike--but with a 21st Century style.

The film features sixty-something Anders Harris who has decided that his conventional life in the Connecticut suburbs lacks meaning. In order to inject his life with passion, authenticity, and purpose, he quits his job in the finance world of NYC, divorces his wife, and moves out of his suburban home and into a condo.

All this freedom doesn't produce the happiness he expected.


Instead, we watch a man who is untethered. Anders makes some efforts to establish new habits, but he just comes off as a shallow and self-destructive. He keeps circling back into the ruts of his previous life--much to the irritation of his ex-wife and even his adult son.

The film has a subplot about the dangers of addiction. Parents and their adult children all dabble with mood-altering substances, whether they be alcohol, recreational drugs, or abuse of prescription drugs. These are people who are trying to be happy and very unsure on how to manage the task.

While no one is particularly admirable among these characters, I did find it instructive to watch what happens when people decided to unshackle themselves from societal conventions. It's not pretty.

Nevertheless, there are some moments of insight and some valid critiques of suburban life. And at times I actually generated a bit of compassion and affection for Anders. But like Holden Caulfield who criticizes conventional life in Catcher in the Rye and Benjamin Braddock from The Graduate, this film leaves me doubting that there a valid alternative to following social conventions.

Vandalizing one's life does feel powerful during the demolition stage, but it's hard to live well among the ruins.

The film does end by jumping ahead in time by a few months to show some of the main characters making small-yet-hopeful changes for the better.  Nevertheless, I find this a powerful cautionary tale against making dramatic changes without a solid plan b.

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