About Schmidt
by Alexander Payne
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Dermot Mulroney, Hope Davis, Jack Nicholson, Kathy BatesDirector: Alexander Payne
Brand: NEW Line Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, 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: The film is based on a questionable premise, but the acting is superb.
Summary: 5 Stars
The film tells a story about an insurance company executive during his transition into retirement. The film begins with the man's last hour in his office, empty except for a wall of boxes containing his recent work product, e.g., memos and reports. We see the hands of the clock inching their way to five o'clock. The man (Jack Nicholson) sits for a minute, just staring at the empty walls of his office. We see the man's retirement party, held at Johnny's Cafe. (In a big city, Johnny's Cafe would be considered a sleazy dive, but in the mid-west, it is elegant.) Shortly into the era of retirement, there are some other transitions, notably the death of the man's wife by way of a heart attack, and the marriage of his daughter to a dim-witted waterbed salesman.
The overall theme of the story is one of impending loneliness and alienation. First, Jack Nicholson faces retirement. Second, it is apparent that his old company has no need for him any more, not even as a consultant. Third, the daughter moves several hundred miles away to get married. Fourth, the daughter marries a man who is intellectually inferior to Jack Nicholson, a situation that creates further alienation. Fifth, Jack Nicholson muses about the notion that he was never close to his wife, asking, "Who is this old woman who lives in my house?" He muses about her irritating habits, her Hummel doll collection, her practice of cutting off his attempts to talk when company is over, her large buttocks, and her instructions to Jack Nicholson that he must always sit down when micturating. Sixth, alienation is further increased when Jack Nicholson discovers old love letters from his best friend (Ray) to his wife. Seventh, alienation is also shown by the prolonged, three-second dwell time of the camera on an empty airport hallway, after his daughter boards an airplane. Eighth, the bleak mid-western landscape further increases the sense of loneliness. Ninth, a brief image of Jack Nicholson in the act of writing a letter to the orphan boy indicates that the character feels himself to be "dead." Here, Jack Nicholson is shown writing the letter in his bathtub, where the scene in the movie mimics the murder painting, The Death of Marat, by Jaques Louis David (1793).
As a band-aid for reducing the surge of loneliness and alienation, Jack Nicholson begins the practice of writing letters to an orphan boy in Africa. Also, Jack Nicholson visits his boyhood home, boyhood school, and alma mater. But as one might expect, the home was torn down and replaced by something else--a tire store. While in the tire store, Jack Nicholson gestures to a location in the premises and exclaims, "My tire swing was right over there." The background music is excellent at this point, as it contains the word "sentimental"--Sentimental Lady by Bob Welch ("Sentimental gentle wind, Blowing through my life again, Sentimental lady, Gentle one").
The film concludes with Jack Nicholson receiving and reading a letter from a nun in Africa and a drawing from the orphan boy. The drawing, which is a stick drawing of a boy holding hands with a man, strikes an emotional nerve in Jack Nicholson, and then the film concludes. The entire film sets us up to understand Mr. Nicholson's momentary emotional upset, that is, his emotional reaction to a stick figure drawing.
The film, About Schmidt, might be compared with Citizen Kane, with Orson Wells. Both films derive their impact, in part, by the fact that an old man acquires spiritual strength from something that normally would be considered to be of little or no consequence (a drawing from orphan boy in About Schmidt; a childhood sled called "Rosebud" in Citizen Kane).
This is about the excellent caracterization of the son-in-law character. The son-in-law talks trailer-trash talk, e.g., "I'm really stoked!" or "How's it hanging?" The son-in-law's bedroom contains colorful ribbons suggesting accomplishments as a teenager. However, the ribbons are only for being a PARTICIPANT and not for actually winning. Also, the bedroom wall shows a certificate for completing an electronics course. But the camera pans down, and we see that the course was only TWO WEEKS LONG, and furthermore, the certificate was given for PERFECT ATTENDANCE. Another subtle depiction of the lower social class family, is the disgusting roast beef at the wedding banquet. The camera dwells lovingly for several moments on the jagged carcass, cloaked with slabs of white fat, reenforcing our understanding that the groom is from a lower social class.
Every nuance of the son-in-law's trailer-trash family is an amusing delight, for example, their public speeches, their house decor, their susceptibility to pyramid schemes, and the true mark of the lower classes----the ease at which they fall into pointless bickering.
Kathy Bates plays the son-in-law's mother. Some reviewers have expressed surprise at her brief nudity scene while climbing into a hot tub. However, she appeared in another brief nude scene in, At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991). Also, the director of the film should be commended in using persons of Asian descent in bit parts. Fifty years ago, one might never encounter an Asian person in small towns throughout the mid-west. But About Schmidt features two Asian persons in bit parts.
It might be argued that the film, About Schmidt, is based on a false premise. The script teaches or suggests that a man cannot derive "meaning of life" from being a business executive. But a business executive's career is filled with many interesting interactions with other people, mountains of problem-solving, frequent exercises of creativity, and often a beneficial effect on society.
There are comedic moments, one of which, is a reprise from AS GOOD AS IT GETS. You might remember the Baltimore seafood restaurant scene, where Jack Nicholson pays Helen Hunt the ultimate compliment and then blows it. The compliment was, "You make me want to be a better man." The same sort of transition occurs in ABOUT SCHMIDT, where Jack Nicholson is getting cosy with another man's wife in her RV.
Jack: I am kind of lonely.
Wife: I knew it.
Jack: Can I tell you something?
Wife: I'm listening.
Jack (reprising the scene in As Good As It Gets): I've only known you for an hour or so, and yet I feel like you understand me better than my wife Helen ever did, even after 42 years of marriage.
(What happens next provides comic relief to this somber-toned movie.)
There is yet another parallel with AS GOOD AS IT GETS. In this movie, Jack Nicholson cries because he grows fond of a small dog. In ABOUT SCHMIDT, Jack Nicholson cries because he received a charming drawing from an African orphan.
The film deserves FIVE STARS for its splendid characterizations of the elderly business executive (Jack Nicholson), a middle aged couple in an RV (comedic scene), a politely arrogant young business executive (Nicholson's replacement), the lower class brother-in-law, and the brother-in-law's hippie mother (Kathy Bates).
Summary of About Schmidt
Warren schmidt is forced to deal with an ambiguousfuture as he enters retirement. Soon after his wife passes away he must come to terms with his daughters marriage to a man he doesnt care for & the failure that his life has become. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 11/14/2006 Starring: Jack Nicholson Hope Davis Run time: 124 minutes Rating: R Director: Alexander PayneWhile 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
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