About Schmidt
by Alexander Payne
List Price:
Our Price: $7.99
You Save: $1.99 (20%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dermot Mulroney, Hope Davis, Jack Nicholson, June Squibb, Kathy BatesDirector: Alexander Payne
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 124 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: New Line Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of About Schmidt
Movie Review: Brilliant acting, black humor, hard truths.
Summary: 5 Stars
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 fianc?'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.
Summary of About Schmidt
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 fa?ade 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 ShannonWarren Schmidt (Nicholson) is about to taste a not so sweet slice of life. When he retired, he and his wife Helen had big plans, but an unexpected twist changed everything. Now, all of Schmidt's attention is focused his daughter's upcoming wedding to a loser waterbed salesman. From meeting hippie parents to sponsoring a Tanzanian foster child, Schmidt embarks on a search for answers...and discovers that life is full of trick questions.
DVD Features:
DVD ROM Features
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer:Deleted Scenes - 9 scenes Woodmen Sequences Theatrical Trailer - 16X9 Widescreen More theatrical trailers from New Line: Unconditional Love I Am Sam Link to Original Website Childreach.org link
Action & Adventure DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in Academy awards nominees (actors) (those who lost) 1999 - 2008
Saving Private Ryan (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)Release date: 2004-05-25; DVD
Best price: $10.96
Price in other shops:
Gods and MonstersLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2003-06-17; DVD
Best price: $4.94
Price in other shops:
American History XWarner Brothers; Release date: 1999-04-06; DVD
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
AfflictionRelease date: 2003-05-20; DVD
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Sweet and LowdownRelease date: 2000-06-20; DVD
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops:
The Straight StoryFARNSWORTH,RICHARD; Release date: 2000-11-07; DVD
Best price: $9.48
Price in other shops:
The InsiderPACINO,AL; Release date: 2000-04-11; DVD
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
The HurricaneWASHINGTON,DENZEL; Release date: 2000-07-11; DVD
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
QuillsRelease date: 2001-05-08; DVD
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
PollockRelease date: 2001-07-24; DVD
Best price: $4.95
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
The Postman Always Rings TwiceRelease date: 1997-08-20; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Anger Management (Widescreen Edition)Sony; Release date: 2003-09-16; DVD
Best price: $2.42
Price in other shops:
Mystic River (Widescreen Edition)Release date: 2004-06-08; DVD
Best price: $1.70
Price in other shops:
Five Easy PiecesNICHOLSON,JACK; Release date: 1999-12-14; DVD
Best price: $7.48
Price in other shops:
Terms of EndearmentWINGER,DEBRA; Release date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $1.39
Price in other shops:
Sideways (Widescreen Edition)GIAMATTI,PAUL; Release date: 2005-04-05; DVD
Best price: $3.71
Price in other shops:
The PledgeRelease date: 2001-06-19; DVD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's NestNICHOLSON,JACK; Release date: 1997-12-17; DVD
Best price: $5.14
Price in other shops:
Something's Gotta GiveSony; Release date: 2004-03-30; DVD
Best price: $2.47
Price in other shops:
As Good As It GetsSony; Release date: 1998-05-20; DVD
Best price: $5.30
Price in other shops: