About Schmidt Review
by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)January 6th, 2003
ABOUT SCHMIDT
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is an adult film in the best meaning
of the term. It is the kind of motion picture
where the viewer repeatedly sees people he knows.
Jack Nicholson's repressed rage and his pitiable
side have never been shown to better advantage.
A great character study from Alexander Payne, the
director of CITIZEN RUTH and ELECTION. Rating: 8
(0 to 10), low +3 (-4 to +4)
ABOUT SCHMIDT is a film with very little going on. It would take about five sentences to describe the plot. And it stars Jack Nicholson, an actor who seems to appeal to others more than he does to me. But it is a film that works because of the performance. This is an actor's film.
It is a statistical fact that many people die just shortly after they retire. Warren Schmidt (played by Jack Nicholson), an actuary who himself has just recently retired, can actually calculate roughly how long it will be before he will die. Actually, the viewer realizes his estimate is off since though his body continues to function, he is mostly dead already and probably has been for years. He was a dull man in a dull job in a dull industry, insurance, in a dull location, Omaha. Now that he no longer has that work he sits in an easy chair and dozes watching infomercials and soap operas. Warren has turned his tiny world into a waiting room where he relaxes and marginally amuses himself waiting to die. He has given himself over to bouts of self-pity and covert rage. His only companions are his television and his wife Helen (June Squibb) whom he has seen every day but now sees as an old woman he barely recognizes.
There is a distinct shortage of people in Warren's life. There is his wife and his daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis), professionally a functionary at a computer firm. Jeannie is soon to marry Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), a man Schmidt is sure is a useless ne'er-do-well. Each of these people Warren has kept at arm's length for so long he cannot embrace them when he needs them. In this situation, Warren finds a bargain on television. For $22/month he can rent another person in his life. It turns out to be Ndugu, a six-year old Tanzanian boy fostered by a religious charity. And much of the story takes the form of letters to Ndugu. Then Warren loses someone close out of his life and he takes to the road in his thirty-five-foot retirement Winnebago, mostly because there is not much else that he has to do. He recounts in weirdly inappropriate letters to Ndugu his adventures, incidents that are frustratingly non- transforming. Eventually we will meet Randall's family and it will be like something out of MEET THE PARENTS, but considerably more real. Warren has lost the ability to relate.
Through it all we get to know Warren. He never had to connect with people on a personal level and never admitted to himself he was lonely while he could keep busy. After years of being apparently successful in business he realizes his managers gave him comfort and job security but did not value him. He protected himself in a shell. Now that he has nothing left but the relationships with others, he cannot relate to some admittedly strange members of this new family.
"Real" is the keyword for much of ABOUT SCHMIDT. There is much more authenticity in this film than in any movie I have seen in a long time. The film does not have an amazing plot, but Warren Schmidt is too real for the viewer to not to start seeing some of people they know in him, and perhaps a little of themselves.
ABOUT SCHMIDT is a comedy, but a painful one. There are moment and characters just a little too familiar for comfort. I rate it an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
