About Schmidt

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fabulous film starring jack nicholson in his best performance to date as a newly retired vp from an insurance company

kathy bates is marvelous as the divorced mother of the son that is marrying nicholson's daughter...


i give the movie an a...



"Ngbu, I hope you're sitting down..."

I saw About Schmidt back in October, and while I admire the Hell out of Nicholson's ego-free performance (which I would be very happy to see win The Oscar), the overall movie left me unimpressed. Frankly, I expected more from Alexander Payne after Election and Citizen Ruth.

Kathy Bates was obviously having fun chewing up the scenery, but I wasn't overly impressed with her work. The first section of the film is very strong, but when Nicholson's Schmidt hits the road in his RV, from there on I thought it degenerated into a seriers of unerplayed, uninteresting, sitcom-level cliches. They weren't funny, they certainly weren't original, and they did little to further develop the Schmidt character. He had some things to play off of, but nothing to work with, if you get the distinction. Though I will say I liked the well-earned CODA, and I like that the finale didn't go over-the-top or in an obvious direction. Even so, the flick had long since let me down by then, and a decent ending wasn't enough to save it.

But Nicholson is magnificent to watch here, even with a disapoining narrative: a perfect performance in an imperfect film. Jack makes it a definite must-see anyway.


I'd grade About Schmidt a B-, and Nicholson's work an A+.
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



so do u think it is worth seeing? I was thinking about seeing it since I like Nicholson especially in his bitter, "real-life" roles,
loved him w Helen Hunt



This movie is so funny, especially the scenes with Warren's wife, Helen. I enjoyed the whole picture more than I thought I would. Some things:

* I agree with Holden that the movie is best before Warren hits the road in his RV, although I love the dinner scene with the Hertzels and that crazy, sexy, flamboyant Roberta.

* The much hyped hot tub scene with Kates Bates baring it all was not funny. I got all psyched when she said "Let's go home and fire up the hot tub" while in the car and then when she came out in her robe, cause I knew the scene was finally here, but the fire soon went out. I sensed a "this is ridiculous" approach in Kathy Bates' manner and I'm surprised she was even nominated for an Oscar in this teeny weeny role. The Nutty Professor 2 scene with Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy as the toothless grandma going after himself in the hot tub was funnier.

* Weird movie. I read that Ndugu was a real Childreach kid from Tanzania that the whole production crew saved. Can you imagine being saved like that? This movie disturbed me. I must be getting more sensitive because watching old people drop dead freaks me out. It was so eeriely real, yet... the sound of the carpet cleaner getting louder and louder and the camera zooming into its dark opening... deathly terrifying. I never thought of it before. Also, what about all those images of meat being chopped up? Was it a message to us that we overindulge while there are children out there who are starving? It made me think of human beings as only big hunks of meat - something we are reduced to as we approach old age and death. I compared the shots to Roberta's big fat naked body as she stepped into the hot tub, like a turkey dinner going to the oven. Yet at the end, human bodies are seen as stick figures in a painting, with a magnificent sun shining on them. Warren's view of life changes from meaningless to spiritual.



Enemies are so stimulating.
mmm i love this film...i just watched it again tonight. i love the way he gets so angry all the time when he is writing to ndugu and the music all goes crazy. and the part when he finds out helen had an affair. jack rules.
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"Surprising to find this in the comedy section."

This film is quiet unusual for the eccentric Jack Nicholson. Although he portraying a rude obsessive-compulsive ("As Good as it Gets") or a perverted old man (Something’s Gotta Give), he sure proves his acting abilities in “About Schmidt.” We see Nicholson star as Warren Schmidt, the most forgettable man in the world. Instead of being called "About Schmidt" it should be called "Forgetting Schmidt." You can tell that this movie was done by Alexander Payne; we get a similar lifeless feeling in the film “Sideways.”

Many think this movie is about a recently windowed and failed father attempting to find happiness, but its not. Instead, it is about a widower and failed father realizing how meaningless and lacking his life really is. I was surprised to see this film in the comedy section because the deeper meanings show depression, anger and loneliness. It is true that Nicholson does add some comic relief, but overall you feel depressed after watching it. It successfully illustrates what life is like if you put your job, paycheck and middle-class suburban home before your family.

The role of Warren Schmidt, although bland and emotionless, is challenging to an actor. So many movies today attempt to glorify peoples lives by showing happiness, Warren gets that same glorification in the showing of his lackluster existence. Our first impressions of the recently retired and utterly invisible actuary is a painfully awkward last-day-at-work at scene. While normal people would be having an in-office party of some sort, Warren sits in his prison cell style room and counts the seconds until 5pm. His office, looking like it was never adorned with decorations, is as depressing as his demeanor. Warren’s retirement dinner later that evening, joined by equally lifeless friends and neighbors, seemed to be even more painful than the 30 second beginning scene of him staring at a clock. Filled with moochers only there for the free ‘average’ mean, there is little talk, few speeches and, in the end, more awkwardness.

With an equally dull and drab 42 year-old marriage, Warren feels that he doesn't know who his wife is. Before his retirement, he used his job as an excuse to being an absent father and spouse. As a result, his children are just as emotionally unattached as Warren is to his wife, Helen (June Squibb). Since the retirement, not only he directly face a useless existence, but now he has all the time in the world to see how miserable his life really is.

Helen and Warren had planned, after retirement, to travel the country in their extreme 35ft. Winnebago Explorer. These plans are cut short suddenly, with Helen’s death. Warren, already backed-in-a-corner, must face his life alone. The only relationship Warren manages to have is with a 6-year-old African child, Ndugu. Found after watching a TV advertisement for an African children's charity, Warren manages to pour all his emotion into a series of letters sent to Ndugu.

Although not too taken back from his wife's demise, in a few scenes he did resemble Howard Beale from "Network" (Minus the "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore” rant). In a sudden act of jumpstarting his life, Warren decides to take a road-trip and see all the sites that remain forgotten in his life. The sites represent the stages of his life that he managed to overlook. In this attempt to perform his own "Bucket List," Warren has several different experiences. He is analyzed by a therapist who tells him that he is truly sad man with deep feelings of anger and fear of being lonely, and he meets his soon-to-be in-laws. With the death of Helen, we are introduced to Warren’s daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis) and her waterbed selling finance, Randall (Dermot Mulroney). Although Warren considers Randall to be an idiot, due to his lack of contribution in Jeannie's’ life and his overall fear of commitment, he remains silent about his true feelings (until the day before the wedding).

The main comic aspect to this film lies in Randall's family. Similar to Eddie’s family in National Lampoons, they are the most dysfunctional family you can imagine. The head of the family is the excessively looney Roberta Hertzel (Kathy Bates) who, not only shares her sexual desires with Warren, but does not stay fully clothed during the entire film. With his conservative life-style and meaningless 40-year marriage, Warren is suddenly thrown into a interesting situation, with a very available Roberta half-naked in a hot tub. Her character is supposed to one of fun and cheer. She is no Annie Wilkes, but the faults of her character help show that Warren is not a bad man - he just has no desires or cares in life.

“About Schmidt” is not about the life of Warren Schmidt, but about the illusion of his life. Surrounded by a family of strangers and a pack of fake friends, the movie shows a man with a caged soul and a diminishing emotional closeness to his daughter. Throughout his life, Warren spends all his time analyzing other peoples lives (the insurance game). He never looked at his own. This film makes you look at your own life and say, "I do not want to be like this."
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Andrew Hesner
The Film Critique