About Schmidt
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Movie Reviews of About Schmidt
Movie Review: Right on the money...
Summary: 5 Stars
Attention to visual detail and absolutely spot-on vignettes make this as perfect a film as I've seen in my 42 years.
Schmidt's house, Schmidt's wife, Schmidt's corner office, Schmidt's paperwork, Schmidt's daughter - it becomes clear that none of them were ever his own. By its nature, you can't own your work in a corporation. But it was by his own hand that Schmidt forfeited ownership and a sense of stewardship over his personal life.
Schmidt goes to visit the future in-laws and we discover the things Schmidt in fact does own - thriftiness, cleanliness and conventionality, politeness and graciousness, belief that it is virtuous to win and excell rather than just participate. We also see these virtues turn to dust when this thrifty Boy Scout turns into a tightwad, conventionality belies a poverty of creativity, cleanliness fosters a messy revolt, and politeness masks a smoldering discontent that can never quite find a way to dissipate.
Schmidt also wrestles with a sexual drive that has no place to go. He is explosively and inappropriately macho with a stranger that expresses tenderness and clinical concern, yet he's alarmed and modest when confronted with too much closeness and disclosure by his future family members.
What is appropriate and when have you crossed over the boundaries? That's what this movie is about. What are you really allowed in life? What can you take for yourself? What should you leave well enough alone? These are big and satisfying questions to chew on.
Schmidt's daughter, too, is tortured by those same questions. She loses the one parent that validated her dreams and bucks her family's unspoken wish for her to embrace conventional virtue (which we know died somewhere in the '70s here on the East Coast, but still limps along somewhere in Nebraska). She faces her father's infantile provocations and emotional blackmail, his feeble attempts at forcing a closeness he never bothered to forge in her youth.
I came away from the movie satisfied, yet unsatisfied. What would happen to Schmidt and his daughter after the credits rolled through? Would his one small act of generosity to an orphan (and more than anything, Schmidt is an orphan himself) foster more than one magic moment for Schmidt? I don't know.
I would buy this movie for my mother, I'd love for her to see it. But I won't. It hits wayyyy too close to home.
Movie Review: Dear Ndugu...
Summary: 5 Stars
I first went to About Schmidt with my Dad, expecting to like it but not love it. I loved it. About Schmidt is an excellent movie. It has a great mix of humor, tragedy, satire, love, and has got to be one of the bleakest movies ever made. Jack Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, a retired insurance salesman who lives in Omaha with his wife for 42 years. When his wife suddenly dies, Warren's daughter Jeannie, flys over from Colorado for the funeral. Accompanying Jeannie is her fiance Randall, a water-bed salesman who is not exactly Mr. Right in the eyes of Warren. After Jeannie and Randall leave, Warren trudges through the sea of frozen dinner packages and food wrappers throughout his house and packs up some clothes for a trip he suddenly decides to take. Driving a brand new luxury RV he and his wife bought recently, Warren heads not only to places he hasn't been to in many years like his childhood home, but also to Colorado, to help Jeannie and Randall prepare for their wedding. As Warren manuevers along the dismal prairie roads however, he begins to discover that his trip isn't just a regular vacation, but actually a personal journey to discover if he had any meaning in his life. The end is a tearjerker. Jack Nicholson turns in a brilliant preformance as our depressed but friendly title character. The film also boasts a strong supporting cast, most notably Kathy Bates as Randall's well meaning but unattractively spunky mother (the jacuzzi scene made everyone in the theater groan). The script by Alexander Payne is very well written and powerful, with often hysterical humor that doesn't require toilet and sex gags. One rather funny yet serious part of the film that comes to mind is also hinted in my review title. Warren decides to do a program where he sponsors an orphan child in a rural country, and his foster child is a six year old African boy named Ndugu. Warren writes to him many times, often after a serious event has taken place. The sequence when he writes his first letter is absolutely hilarious. This part of the film also has a lot to do with the ending. About Schmidt is such a more enjoyable film than a lot of the movies that come out in theaters these days (A Guy Thing and Biker Boyz come to mind). Whether you're looking for a film that may actually change your look at life, or you just want to find something to do tonight, give About Schmidt a chance. I guarantee, it's worth checking out.Movie Review: Divine!
Summary: 5 Stars
First of all, I'd like to say something about a lot of the reviews of this movie. I notice that a lot of people cut back on stars because it's "depressing." Is this actually a good reason to give it a bad/average review? One person gave it 1 star because they said it was bitter, depressing, and puzzling. Sounds like this movie in reality was actually a 5 star to this person. A movie so subtletly powerful that can put you in a depressed state? Some people get scared to look beyond the simple "It was sad and depressing, who would want to watch that?" because of the extreme depth that the movie had that they can probably relate to themselves. It was a very depressing movie indeed, but it was magnicifent, rich, thought-provoking, and taught an extremely important life lesson.
The movie is about a man named Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson), who has just retired and seems to be on some sort of journey to find his purpose in life. When his wife dies, he's left all alone with his confused emotions and a big trailer which he decides to leave in.
I'm not going to get into extreme details of the movie, but I would like to address some of the important life lessons that it teaches. One way to look at it: the hypothesis of the movie was proposed by Warren's best friend at his retirement party. He claimed that what makes a man rich is being able to do your job well in life, therefore making Warren Schmidt a very rich man. For the rest of the movie, Warren seems to be challenging this idea. Is that was truly makes a man happy? I won't spoil it for you, but the outcome is something to truly ponder. A great movie for teenagers especially.
Another life lesson is getting to know those whom you love as good as you can. When Warren's wife died; he had all of these questions. "Did Helen really love me?", etc. He even writes to Ndugu (a young boy in Africa who he sponsors), "Young man, you need to cherish the things you have, while you have them." Warren learns a valuable lesson of how quickly things can disappear and how you must take advantage every day while they are still there to cherish, love, and get to know them exactly for who they are.
I loved the symbolism in the movie. Ndugu, the cows locked up in vans (pay attention to that), and of course the pioneer exhibit in the end. This a must-see movie; you'll feel like a wiser person when you walk out.
Movie Review: A Warning
Summary: 5 Stars
'About Schmidt' is a warning. It's a warning about what not to become and not how to end your life. Schmidt comes to the realization that his life was wasted. And, in a way he deserves it. He clearly cannot express himself to his wife, daughter and friends. Subsequently they treat him with contempt. His wife and best friend had an affair, his daughter is almost completely estranged from him and uses him only for money. Schmidt went through his entire life without the benefit of Charles Dickens' "ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future". He never got a chance to see what was, is, or could be. And now it's too late.
Schmidt is shy and withdrawn. During his retirement party at which he is the center of attention, he slips into a nearby bar for a drink to overcome his nervousness. Schmidt can't really have a lengthy conversation about anything nor show any enthusiasm as demonstrated by his speech at his daughters wedding where he ends with "I'm very pleased".
Schmidt is cheap. When his wife dies, he gets the cheap coffin. He clearly has very little generosity aside from the checks he dutifully sends his daughter but even then he attempts to hold that over her. His house is filled with cheap stuff, and even the Winebago outside is half paid for by his wife because Schmidt was too cheap to buy it for her himself.
He hasn't any zest for life, he gave up on that long ago (especially when he recounts his dreams about become a big business success only to settle for mediocrity and a steady paycheck with a bland insurance firm).
Schmidt can only confide his true feelings to a Tanzanian boy he is sponsoring. His sponsorship in the charity organization is kind of pathetic like Schmidt- a too little, too late gesture of futility.
The movie demonstrates how frantic last minute pathetic gestures of trying to make things right cannot atone for a wasted life. Schmidt tries desperately to reconnect with his daughter but to no avail. He ends up friendless and lonely and can only continue to communicate with his charity foster child. Finally he has an emotional reaction when his charity foster child sends him a drawing of them together.
I encourage everyone to watch this film and take this as an instructional manual for how not to end your life. Live, learn, laugh, and leave a legacy. Don't follow Schmidt's example.
Movie Review: About Schmidt is About Real Life
Summary: 5 Stars
About Schmidt is one of the most profound movies I've seen, and I write this review to share what I see as the central point of this movie. If you watched this movie and thought it was just an amusing story about a man going through the latter transitions of life, you've missed this deeper meaning.
When Schmidt, who is played perfectly by Jack Nicholson, retires, he finds out that his work has become obsolete to the point that neither he nor his work will be missed by his company.
When Schmidt's wife, with whom he has become frustrated, dies, he learns just how much she meant to him, how much he has taken her for granted, that he was oblivious to an affair that she had with his friend, and comes to realize how much he misses her.
When Schmidt realizes that his daughter is living her life completely outside of his expectations for her, he realizes that he was an absent father and that she does not need him.
Along the way, Schmidt donates to support little Ndugu. Although it is a small thing that he starts on an impulse, he comes to realize that what he has contributed for Ndugu is the one thing in his life that he has done with no expectation for return, and so has become the only thing that gives his life any lasting meaning.
Thus, Schmidt comes face-to-face with his regrets: that he took his wife for granted, that he did not take a more active role in raising his daughter, and that he has forsaken all for a job in a company that lost appreciation for him long ago.
This is a movie that everyone should watch - well, everyone that is secure in the knowledge that they are contributing something back to this world. And, once you have watched it from that frame of mind, show it to someone younger and explain it in a way that demonstrates Thomas Jefferson's principle that community and individuals are inextricable linked; that our individual lives and our communities (family, organization, village, city, country...) benefit when each individual contributes to the good of all. About Schmidt is an encouragement to make a difference in your life by being a warning that failure to do so will leave us empty during the time of our life when we will need most to know that we have made a difference.