About Schmidt (2002)

While confirming Jack Nicholson's status as an American national treasure, About Schmidt is sure to provoke polarized reactions. Stoked by the success of Election, director Alexander Payne and cowriter Jim Taylor have altered Louis Begley's novel to suit their comedic agenda, turning Nicholson's titular character into a 66-year-old, newly retired Omaha insurance actuary, weary from decades of drudgery and passionless marriage. When his wife suddenly dies, he attempts to reclaim his life in a king-sized Winnebago, desperate to convince his daughter (Hope Davis) not to marry the Denver dimwit (Dermot Mulroney) whose mother (Kathy Bates) has her own baggage of peculiar peccadilloes. Nicholson perfectly (and often hilariously) nails the seething anger beneath his character's façade of resignation, but Payne and Taylor convey cold-hearted contempt for these Midwestern malcontents. Think of this as Ikiru with bleaker humanity, until Schmidt finds meaning--and some small reward--in a quiet gesture of goodwill. Love it or hate it, About Schmidt is a movie you won't soon forget. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

Brilliant acting, black humor, hard truths.

Nicholson nails this character, a man whose life is quite commonplace. He has done his duty. He has supported a wife and an only daughter. He is fussily punctilious about his job, and in that he takes some satisfaction. Then he retires and everything changes.

One by one the elements of his self-image are destroyed. He is not important at his job. He returns to 'help' his replacement, and is brushed off. His daughter lives in another city. His wife, whose steadfastly cheerful manner gets on his nerves, is someone which whom he no longer has any sense of connection. He idealizes his relationship with his daughter, and despises as unworthy the shifty and none-too-bright man she plans to marry.

Unhappy as he emerges into the emptiness of his retirement, and without insight into his lack of depth, lack of interests, and lack of any authentic sense of connection with any other human being, he watches television, flipping the channels. On impulse, while watching a commercial for a foreign-aid charity, he decides to "adopt" a foster son in Africa, and commits to send money monthly to the charity.

It is then that he reveals the bizarre degree of his alienation. He begins writing letters to this little boy, as if a child from another culture was in some way able to understand and relate to Schmidt's situation.

He has some serious shocks in store. First, he learns that his relationship with his daughter is not the simple and affectionate one he assumed it was. She resents that he has selected the second-cheapest coffin for his wife's funeral. She resents that Schmidt has asked for money from his wife's investments to buy a mobile home. His daughter dismisses his explanation, that his wife wanted a more luxurious model than Schmidt believed they could afford -- as if sharing the expenses of retirement with her husband was somehow unjust to the dead woman. And his daughter's words reveal that her mother had been complaining about Schmidt's behavior to her.

He learns that his wife had betrayed him in at least one other way -- she'd had an affair, years before, with his best friend.

And his daughter reveals that she basically wants his financial support, but does not want further intimacy.

He meets her fiancé's family, and they confirm his worst suspicions. They are vulgar, squabbling -- and poor. They constantly bring up the subject of money -- his -- always with a hand held out for some of it, either for dodgey investment or obligations they presume are his. Director Alexander Payne elicited brilliant performances from Bates and the other actors who played this dysfunctional family's members.

Then he makes a social blunder, mistaking a compassionate woman's words as sexually inviting. Her shocked reaction sends him into panicky flight!

And it is at this point that he receives a letter from a nun who works at the African charity to which he contributes. The child Ndugu can't read or write, so she's writing on his behalf to inform Schultz that the young boy wishes him well.

(I can't avoid an aside at this point -- in 'real life', what on earth would this nun have thought of Schmidt's letters to a little child, discussing matters such as his status in an insurance company, marital fidelity, 'trailer-trash' in-laws, and so forth? Surely a high point of black humor.)

And Schmidt caves. Finally -- and this is his terminal failure -- he is touched by Ndugu's words of gratitude and concern -- or by the conventional words of the nun -- and experiences what -- for him -- is an epiphany. He will do the 'right thing'. He will do his duty. He attends the wedding, says all the right things as the bride's father, and then returns to Omaha, to await the end of his days.

Film Noir, indeed! But I thought it was great. One gets sick of sentimentality.











June 23, 2008

Bursting the bubble on the American dream, and finding it's not so bad.

An old man walks into a dark, inert house and stands over his desk as if wondering what he will do next. His wife has died, his daughter married, and his job has given him the standard "gold watch" for his retirement and all but forced him out so younger blood can move in with vulture-like precision and take over. This is the life of Warren Schmidt, a tired, quiet and suppressed man who is discovering that his whole life has been little more than busy-work. Ultimately, he has discovered that nothing he worked so hard for in his life has made him the least bit happy or content and now...

...and now he stands over that desk staring at mail. There before his glance is one letter addressed to him from Africa. He opens it up, begins reading, and finally, from the depths of his soul, he lets out a tear-filled smile.

This is the story of Schmidt, an odd, funny tale about a man who's lived a blind, predictable life and has found he is no longer content. He wants something more, but doesn't know what it is. In the end, as Schmidt discovers, you will see that happiness is often times found in simplicity.

4.5 out of 5
June 20, 2008

Please choose a different product. Leave now while you still can.

Dull, absolutely dull.
The plot is stagnant, and this movie is truly a fall of a likable actor.

Not sure how does jack nicholson go from being the joker (the only time the joker ever looked or acted like a real cool guy), to, well, this.

This movie is about a depressing old man, his boring wife, boring children, and umm boring adopted son.

this is literally the worst movie i've ever seen, that includes friends home made videos, and all of mystery science theater 3000 projects.

this movie fails to make (at least me) the viewer care about any of the people in it.

the lead character is depressing because he is married to a silly and possibly cheating woman, who dies (oops spoiler), his children seem to have little respect for him, no one does, maybe his african adopted son or whatever (he has the best role in this movie, and seems to be the token black guy for this film).

hell even kathy bates couldn't even save this movie.

i tried to like this movie, but i can't. its painful, physically painful to watch this. i try to watch straight through, but then my body starts to hurt, and an irresistible desire to push eject overwhelms me. please dont buy this product. unless you're someone i dislike, then by all means suffer :P. this movie is hell. May 1, 2008

Five Easy Pieces for Your Bucket List

Jack Nicholson is an authentic genius of acting. And there are some impressive bookends to his contributions to our culture (at least if you don't count the science fiction b/w movies he started out with).

"Five Easy Pieces" depicts a young man's rebellion and struggle to achieve intimacy. A great trope of that movie was his "dualogue" with his demanding, artistic and remote father, who has been struck dumb by a disease. So Nicholson talks to his non-replying dad, pouring out his issues and trying to gain an understanding.

The Bucket List says that an old man, knowing that he is dying, can do the things he's always dreamed of, given the right combination of money and companionship. A zest for living is the trope.

Then there's this one. Warren Schmidt has had no dreams. He has managed his life rather than living it. He had no expectations, but to sigh deeply at the demands of his job, his wife, his daughter. Life for Warren is duty, not joy. Do the right thing and do it carefully. This path will provide its own reward.

Then he loses his wife. Then he confronts not only the loss of his daughter (which has already mostly occurred), but also her complete alienation (by the doing of Warren's duty to counsel her not to marry the man she loves).

Warren's soliloquoy at the end completes the cycle started with "Five Easy Pieces." Imagine the father in that film able to speak...here's what he would say...

Someday soon, either in a few days or in twenty years, I will die. When I'm gone and everyone who knew me is gone, it will be as though I never existed.

It's enough to make a grown man cry, and he does, finally.

Folks below debate whether this is drama, a melodrama, or a comedy. If it must be anything, I'd call it a divine comedy. Watch and laugh if you want, but you know you're just whistling past the graveyard. If you've laughed, the joke's on you.

[And it sure makes a guy wonder what Nicholson will NOW do for an encore.] March 27, 2008

Good motivation if you want to buy an RV.

About Schmidt, DVD.

I saw this movie a few years ago. I loved it. I bought it again for the RV scenes. Nicholson really make the motorhome "shine". I think this is better than the DVD "RV" with Robin Williams in it. February 3, 2008

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