About Schmidt Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)December 20th, 2002
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For the second film in a row, Jack Nicholson's screen alter-ego opens the picture just as his character is retiring. In The Pledge, Jack's Jerry Black was a grizzled Reno cop who wasn't at all interested in beginning a new chapter in his life. In Alexander Payne's latest, About Schmidt, the 65-year-old Nicholson plays 66-year-old Warren Schmidt, who is also rather reluctant to give up his job as an insurance company vice president. It's not because he envies the youth of his exuberant replacement, or because he dreads spending more time with Helen (June Squibb), his frumpy wife of 42 years, but because the actuary business is all the wooden, sedentary Omaha resident knows.
Warren doesn't feel any better when, shortly after his retirement, he pops back in to his old office to visit, only to be ignored by his replacement and discover his old files discarded like empty pizza boxes. But there's even more trouble on Warren's horizon. His only child, Jeannie (Hope Davis, Hearts in Atlantis), is weeks away from marrying a mullet-crowned waterbed salesmen (Dermot Mulroney, Lovely & Amazing). And there's the impending tour of America in a brand-new 35-foot motor home with the wife he apparently can no longer stand.
A switch flips somewhere deep down inside Warren when he sees a television commercial for Childreach, one of those outfits that says you can make a difference in an African child's life for just $22 a month. Warren makes the call, gets the introductory package and learns he'll be helping out a six-year-old from Tanzania. The package also includes a request to send the kid a letter detailing some "personal information" about himself. Warren uses this opportunity (via a splendidly memorable voiceover) to unload all of his pent-up emotion about his sad life, which we see in a hilarious montage of things about Helen that make him crazy. Warren steps out to mail the letter and get an ice cream, and finds Helen dead when he gets home.
Shortly after the funeral, Warren is blown off once again - this time by daughter Jeannie, who rebuffs Dad's attempt to visit and help out with the upcoming wedding preparations. Thus begins a road trip in the huge RV to places from Warren's past (possibly rolling down some of the very same roads Nicholson traveled in Easy Rider), along with more letters to his African foster child, more great voiceovers and more funny montages. Schmidt culminates, of course, with Jeannie's wedding and Warren's introduction to her new in-laws, making this film the best road trip that ends in a wacky encounter with wacky relatives you didn't know you had since Ben Stiller met up with Lily Tomlin, Alan Alda and Glenn Fitzgerald in Flirting With Disaster. I won't go into much, other than saying the "brief nudity" in the MPAA warning comes courtesy of Kathy Bates (Dragonfly).
Nicholson has been garnering Oscar buzz for this film since it debuted at Cannes in May. It's nice to see him play characters close to his real age (a la Clint Eastwood in Blood Work), but it's even more gratifying to see Jack in such an un-Nicholsony role. This is probably the least colorful character he's ever tackled - for sure it involves the least amount of eyebrow waggling (save that nudity scene) - but it's probably his most memorable, too. It's the kind of role you won't be able to imagine anyone else playing, and it's almost a lock for an Oscar nomination. Payne, who adapted the script (with Election's Oscar-nominated cohort Jim Taylor) from Louis Begley's 1996 novel about a retiring attorney from the Hamptons, doesn't give Warren time to grieve until the final scene, which will either strike you as laughably manipulative, or incredibly heartfelt.
It's truly a thrill to see the steady yet remarkable (not to mention damn exciting) growth exhibited by young filmmakers like Payne, as well as Andersons Wes and Paul Thomas. Schmidt is filmed very much like a Wes Anderson picture (especially the montage thing), and, along with Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love, is the finest American dramedy of the year.
1:52 - R for some language and brief nudity
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