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ABOUT SCHMIDT Send This Review to a Friend
Directed by Alexander Payne, "About Schmidt" is a superb film with an award-level performance by Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt, a Nebraska insurance executive who upon retirement finds his life empty and aimless, and when his wife suddenly dies, sets off on a revealing journey.
The skill of the film, which opened the 2002 New York Film Festival and has a screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor from a Louis Begley novel, lies in its being so funny and satirical even while being sad. Nicholson often says more with his expressions than words might accomplish. The portrait of Middle America that emerges is droll and condescending, yet there is also affection for the types that we meet even while laughing at them. The emptiness in Schmidt's life is what makes the film sad, and yet by the ending he is reached emotionally and so are we.
Kathy Bates is uproariously funny as the mother of the waterbed salesman who is to become Warren's son-in-law in the Denver wedding that is pending. Warren heads for the wedding in his motor home but has misgivings about the man his daughter (Hope Davis) has chosen. He also assumes he has a closer relationship with his daughter than the one that exists. Bates has a great scene in which she plops nude into a hot tub in a come-on that scares the daylights out of Warren, who recoils from the mere idea.
The story is punctuated by letters (spoken by Schmid in voiceover) that he writes to Ndugu, a six-year-old boy in Tanzania, whom he supports for $22 monthly as a result of his do-gooder response to a charity organization. He pours out his heart and soul in these letters that the kid couldn't possibly understand, but it gives him a chance to vent his feelings, and we're informed what's on his mind. The idea is very funny, but also tuned to the emotional finale.
Given that Nicholson plays the protagonist, you may think of his road movies "Easy Rider" and "Five Easy Pieces." Seeing Nicholson look as old as he is made to appear in this film is a shocker, but his performance is a demonstration of what a magnificent actor he continues to be at this stage of his life. It would be a surprise if Nicholson did not get an Oscar nomination for this performance, which is a defining one at this point in his long and illustrious career. A New Line Cinema release.
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