About Schmidt
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Movie Reviews of About Schmidt
Movie Review: After retiring there is another life
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is a real feast of pleasure. Jack Nicholson is outstanding in the composition of his role and is marvelously seconded by Kathy Bates and other younger actors. The film is also fascinating due to its concentration on an essential moment in life for a man. His retirement and the quick loss of his wife, leaving him a young recently-retired widower. Some particular problems are explored with tact and truthfulness. His relation to his daughter at this moment, especially in the face of her marrying someone he considers as unfit. He will try to prevent it and yet will yield gracefully and in style. This conflict will bring up the difference between his vision of his daughter as a goddess in his life and the daughter's resentment at her father about his relation to her mother who happens to be his wife. What a man, an old man has in his mind does not always correspond to reality. Little by little he thus discovers that life was not what he thought it was and hoped it to be. He was retired by his firm and discarded, with nice words, by his successor as well as by the firm itself. He does not count any more. His wife had had an affair, some twenty-five years ago, with his best friend and superior in the firm. Thus he is led into going on a nostalgic trip, at first, across the US, but this trip becomes an initiation to solitude and to the awareness that should be his in a world that does not exactly correspond to his vision and desire. He thus learns, under the stars and in the night, all by himself and alone, how to cope with these necessary adjustments. And he does it marvelously. But in this epiphanic journey he is helped by the relation he voluntarily starts with a young African boy in Tanzania that he takes under his patronage for 22 dollars a month. This relation, and the drawing this child will send him, after his numerous and very personal letters, will make him realise that life demands a connection between him and someone else, and that this connection is in no way written down or programed in the big book of society. It can neither come from the past, nor from the immediate present of the people he meets along the way. It has to come from a wilful choice and action to help someone and not just to confide and submit or take. This help, and the hope that comes along with it, is the key to a balanced life after retiring, after entering old age solitude. Jack Nicholson is a marvelous actor in this part and does not in any way fall in the trap of his too common tricks : he does not look at all paranoid or psychotic or in any way deranged. He looks normal, banal, close to us, typical of what such people can be and actually are : definitely not a man who enters a phase of ranting and raving, of obsession and mental hyperventilation. Every moment of the film is a piece of pleasure and the expectation of the next moment is even more pleasurable. A film we could watch a hundred times and still enjoy even more and expect to enjoy one more time after this hundredth time. A beautiful and universal picture of what our societies are for senior citizens and how they can cope with life and coming death.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Perpignan
Movie Review: ENFORCED RETIREMENT IS NOT A PRETTY THING
Summary: 5 Stars
There's a lot more to this movie than just the story of dull old Warren Schmidt's seeming inability to accept his retirement, the death of his wife, and the marriage of his daughter to a real loser.The opening scene sets the stage for a lot to come: We see an expressionless Schmidt (played by Jack Nicholson) sitting in a barren office, everything packed up in storage boxes, watching a clock as the second hand moves slowly to exactly 5:00 p.m. That's when Schmidt's retirement officially begins, and being the type of loyal employee that he is, he's not about to short his company by even one second. You can tell that he was a true company man, and that he feels that, with retirement, his life has ended.
He goes home to his dull, boring wife of over 40 years, whom he thinks he hates and resents. Very shortly after his retirement, she dies suddenly while vacuuming up a few spots of dirt on the floor. Thus another ending for Warren.
His daughter comes home with the wheeler dealer loser she's about to marry, and Warren suffers another sort of loss when he realizes he means nothing in her life other than as a source of financial assistance.
I'm going to skip over his Winnebago trip from his home in Omaha to his arrival in Denver for his daughter's wedding. Additionally, I'm not discussing his letters to his "foster-child," which form the narrative backbone of _ABOUT SCHMIDT_. My skipping these important aspects of the film does not mean that I didn't enjoy them, but, in order to limit the length of my review, I am being a little selective.
The future son-in-law is a waterbed salesman who pushes various pyramid schemes on the side, and Warren soon discovers that he is destined to sleep on a waterbed while in Denver. The waterbed provides him with the most uncomfortable night of his life. The future son-in-law's mother, played by Kathy Bates, is a really weird woman (an understatement). Because of Warren's aching back, she suggests he make use of the hot tub in the back yard. He does, and is starting to feel better until he is joined in the tub by a nude Kathy Bates character who attempts to "put the make" on him. For a man with a bad back, he gets out of the tub in one heck of a hurry. This is one of the funniest scenes in a movie that effectively mixes equal doses sadness and humor.
I think that one would have to see the movie to really get a feel for Warren's toast at the wedding, or for the depression he feels on his way back to Omaha in his Winnebago, or for the final uplifting moment just before the credits roll.
I suppose I can understand why a lot of (probably) younger reviewers might have thought this was a slow or "b-o-o-oring" movie. In my opinion that's probably because it was a rather introspective movie about feelings, and was light on the kind of action that makes up the bulk of many movies today. This movie, like a good book, requires the viewer to apply a dose of his own imagination and feelings in order to get its full impact. It gives nothing on a silver platter and is the better for these demands that it makes of the viewer.
Movie Review: Examining the life of retirement...
Summary: 5 Stars
This drama/comedy isn't for everyone, but I would say that most people over the age of forty will relate to this film. The comedy seems to relate most accurately to that age group.
Warren Schmidt's (Jack Nicholson) life is about to change and he isn't even aware of it. Warren is used to living his life by following all of the rules. This is shown right from the start of the film by him staring at the clock on his last day of work, counting down to 5:00, quitting time. This is accentuated at the retirement party thrown him that evening. Warren sits and listens to all of the pandering and makes no comments, just accepts life as it comes to him.
Life as a retiree has no structure and Warren has no idea, other than traveling with his wife and the upcoming marriage of his daughter what to do with his life. With nothing left to do Warren decides to sponsor a foster child through an outreach agency. This begins a dialogue with a foster child by the name of Ndugu. It is through the correspondence with the foster child that we gain an understanding of what Warren is thinking and feeling. He has been married to his wife Helen (June Squibb) for 42 years and really knows nothing about her. The only thing that he knows is that he is vaguely aware of some discontent with his wife and he is concerned about the upcoming marriage of his daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis) to Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), a waterbed salesperson.
Warren must make the transition from his highly structured environment to his retirement. Helen dies suddenly and Warren is left to make the transition on his own. Warren believes that he has a close relationship with his daughter and finds out after his wife's death that it is less than perfect.
With nothing else on the horizon, Warren focuses on his discontent and decides that he must do whatever he can to stop the marriage of his daughter and her fiancé. After beginning a trip to Denver, where his daughter is located, he calls her to let her know he is on the way. She tells him that he must not arrive until a day or so before the wedding. He then decides to take a meandering trip that visits childhood memories and tourist stops on the way.
Warren finally makes his way to Denver where he meets Randall's family and he stays with his mother before the wedding. Randall's mother Roberta (Kathy Bates) seems to be someone that is still holding on to the late sixties or early seventies. She seems to feel very comfortable with herself and makes a broad pass at Warren. Warren was uncomfortable enough with the situation that he had retreat to his Adventurer.
Kathy Bates' role as Randall's mother helped to make this a funny, believable film. I always enjoy Jack Nicholson and his portrayal of Warren was wonderful. While this is a fairly slow paced film, it is worth watching as a chance to see what life might be like at that time of life. I have added this to my personal library and recommend it for those that are middle age and beyond.
Movie Review: A Quiet, Moving Statement
Summary: 5 Stars
Schmidt is an insurance executive, newly retired, from an pretty good career. No, he wasn't the president of the company, as he'd hoped, or even the vice-president, as he maybe deserved, but he did become the assistant vice-president. A nice career, and he receives a nice send-off at his retirement dinner. While coming to terms with this, his wife of 42 years drops dead. Schmidt starts to think about his life, what he has done, what his lasting effect will be, and he comes to a bleak conclusion. "One of these days I'm going to die," he says. "Maybe tomorrow, maybe in five years, maybe in ten years. And once everyone else that knows me dies, nobody alive will remember me, or know anything about me. I have gone through this world, and my existence has not changed it at all." Something like that.
So he sees an ad on TV and decides to sponsor an African orphan. He sends the kid twenty-five dollars a month and gets to send him letters. A very nice device: we get to hear Schmidt's thoughts as he sends the kid these letters.
And he realizes that there is something that he can do after all: he can stop his only child, his adult daughter, from marrying the, "nincompoop" to whom she is engaged. We in the audience are shown that, yes, the fellow is indeed a nincompoop.
He goes to the nincompoop's home two days before the wedding, and finds that they are a family of nincompoops. The mother, though kind, is an unmannered vulgarian, cursing at her ex-husband in the kitchen, demeaning to all at the dinner table, and plopping nude into the hot-tub where Schmidt is innocently trying to relax. The ex-husband is a clown. The brother of the groom seems to be in a drug-induced haze. They live in a noisy and unpleasant neighborhood.
Despite his desperate pleas--when he finally gets a chance to make them--Schmidt's daughter insists on going through with the wedding.
It occurs. And at the reception, sure enough, the toast made by the best man is clumsy and oafish. The music is cheapo, disco junk. It is finally Schmidt's turn, the bride's father--played by Jack Nicholson--to make his toast. He thanks all of them, and then he says, with the camera in close-up and from several different angles, that he wants to say something more. He looks at everybody, with his glass in the air, and we realize that it is the Nicholson moment. We've been waiting for it. Jack Nicholson is going to say something--in the sarcastic Jack Nicholson way we've come to know and love--about these people he despises.
And he gives his speech. I am not going to tell you anything more, except to say that to me, it is one of the most revelatory, powerful moments in film. A slug to the head.
After it is all done he goes home and finds that he has been sent a letter from the teacher of the little African boy. Along with the letter there is a picture drawn by the little boy, and Mr. Schmidt--played by the magnificent Mr. Nicholson--realizes that he has made a difference in this world after all.
Movie Review: Best (American) Picture of the Year.
Summary: 5 Stars
*About Schmidt* is a What's-The-Meaning-Of-Life movie that attempts to find meaning in one mediocre old man's life. . . . The scary thing is, the incredibly brave thing is, director Alexander Payne dares to suggest that there might be no meaning at all to this man's life. The frightening message is: some men's lives are almost completely wasted. They waddle through their time on this earth, doing the "right things" (college, family, prestigious job as executive of an insurance company), only to find at the end that it's all been in vain. So why even watch *About Schmidt*? Reason #1 is that you shouldn't have to be coddled with a "positive message" every time you sit down to watch a movie. You're not a child; you can handle it. Reason #2 is that the movie is also a great comedy: the laughs succeed in mitigating the despair. Life, like this movie, is a tragedy . . . and it's also funny as hell. Much of the humor is derived from its star, Jack Nicholson. He's totally immersed in the role, and the famous "killer smile" is never once exhibited. His performance is another reminder of why he's a legend in the business, and his willingness to work this hard to nail a character at this late date in his career should shame some of the Oscar-possessing dilettantes 2 or 3 or 4 decades his junior. Nicholson certainly has nothing to prove; his legacy is assured . . . which is all the more reason to marvel at his effort here. Among the movie's other many virtues is that Payne's depiction of Nebraska and other assorted fly-over states is mercilessly accurate. Any Heartland sentimentality is immediately relegated to kitsch. (During Schmidt's travels, we encounter tacky RV parks and Wagons West museums.) The photography is unsparing (check the opening scene featuring downtown Omaha in all its banal ugliness). It's a shabby environment perfectly suited to a shabby man. Perhaps the last word on the film is that it's like a darkly funny *King Lear* without that reconciliation bit at the end. But there's a ray of hope: during the course of the film, Schmidt, out of some vague, groping desire to do something genuine, strikes up a one-way correspondence with a poor six-year-old from Tanzania named -- pricelessly -- Ndugu. He discovered Ndugu after applying to be a "foster father" to a Third World child. (He had been moved by a TV infomercial for one of those Children's Defense Fund-type organizations.) Throughout the course of the film, Schmidt keeps little Ndugu up-to-date on his post-retirement day-to-day life: his troubles with his wife; his wife's death; the troubles with his daughter; his dislike of his future son-in-law, etc. This is all very funny in and of itself . . . but it leads to a payoff at the very end of the film that packs a wallop of emotion. Of course, the ending can be interpreted as merely a continuance of Schmidt's self-delusion . . . but I like to think it was a breakthrough for our shabby hero. I mean, there's only so much negativity that even I can take.