About Schmidt [DVD] [2003]

Right, now that that rants off, I can tell you what a genuinely entertaining and enjoyable film "About Schmidt" is.
Warren Schmidt is a 66 year old insurance executive on the verge of retirement. We meet him on his last day in the office, clock-watching as the final few seconds click round until he is finally free from the drab enclosed box that his office looks like. However the joy and freedom of retirement that most of us look forward to is actually something of dread for Mr Schmidt. Waking up on his first day without work, he realises that he is without purpose in his life, he has nothing to do, and no-one cares whether he does it or not. His wife of 42 years annoys him in so many ways, his only daughter lives miles away in another state and seldom visits or seems to want to visit, and the company he loyally served for so many years is getting on seemingly very well without him. Cast adrift and aimless he is even more at a loss when his wife suddenly dies, leaving a huge void in his normal existence. His one solace and chance of expression are the heartfelt letters he writes to his sponsored foster child he has adopted through a charity in Tanzania.

However all is not lost. The 35 foot Winnebago traveller he bought with the idea of journeying around America with his wife is put to use as Schmidt begins an extraordinary voyage of self-discovery and re-evaluation, culminating with his daughter's marriage to a dubious looking potential son-in-law.

What the film then presents are a series of poignant scenes as Schmidt gets to know himself on his long journey. Some of these scenes are tender, some even tear-jerking and yes some of them are distinctly amusing but all of them provide insights into the emptiness inside Schmidt.

Jack Nicholson once again puts in a terrific performance as Schmidt and was obviously well worthy of his Oscar nomination. For an actor normally associated with extravagate, almost over the top performances it was most interesting to see this great actor playing almost within himself. Fine supporting performances from Katy Bates (also nominated for an Oscar) June Squibb and Dermot Mulroney.

I wouldn't say the film is a total masterpiece, indeed some of the scenes on the road trip are quite bizarre and I'm not sure what they were meant to represent, the scene when Schmidt meets the other Winnebago travellers for example. Also the film can become almost cloying with its sentimentality and verges on depression at more than one point.

I'm not surprised so many other reviewers here slammed it for not being funny or for being too serious, as I say to decorate the box with quotes like "A Very Funny Movie" is misleading at the very least.
That said I would still recommend this movie to any fan of poignant, thoughtful and intelligent films. Wait for the final scene and make sure you have a hankie ready!

His life really begins when he retires, as a series of life jarring changes occur. His wife of forty two years, Helen (June Squibb), suddenly dies. She is a domineering woman whom he loved on some level but for whom he was unable to express much feeling while she was still living, even though there were many things about her that irritated him.

Their only child, Jeannie (Hope Davis), lives in Denver, Colorado and is about to get married to Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), a dimwitted, waterbed salesman whom Schmidt cannot abide. He learns some truths about the real status of his own relationship with his daughter, Jeannie, and it is not the idealized relationship that he thought he had. In fact, he learns just how disconnected he is from his daughter, who is really a veritable stranger to him, as was his wife. Moreover, not even his best friend, Ray (Lou Cariou), was whom Schmidt thought him to be.

When Schmidt travels to Colorado for the wedding, he stays with the groom's mother, Roberta Hertzel, a much married, earthy, and passionate divorcee, who is comfortable with herself and not afraid to express her feelings. She is a sort of flower child/earth mother holdover from the late nineteen sixties, early seventies.

Lacking an emotional connection with any other human being, Schmidt sponsors a six year old, Tanzanian child through a charitable agency, and begins sending him letters, detailing his life as he sees it. It is more of a catharsis for Schmidt, rather than an attempt at real communication with a child. This contrivance also serves to tell the viewer just how Schmidt perceives his life. When he receives a letter with something the child has sent him, the idea that someone has actually thought of him opens the emotional floodgates for Schmidt and unleashes all those repressed feelings of anger, sadness, loss, pain, suffering, in one fell swoop.

Jack Nicholson gives an excellent performance as the repressed Midwesterner who only begins to get in touch with his feelings the end of his life spectrum. He gives a good account of a man who is making his way in, what is for him, uncharted territory. Funny, poignant and sad, it is a performance that is well nuanced. June Squibb is perfectly cast in the role of the Helen, Schmidt's wife. Her apple cheeked countenance and dumpy, matronly look exemplify the stereotypic senior citizen housewife. Helen's penchant for order and cleanliness is brought home by Ms. Squibb's performance.

Kathy Bates is wonderful as the somewhat bohemian, earth mother figure in the film. Her much talked about nude scene was natural and in keeping with her role. I applaud her courage in doing it, given the emphasis on thinness in Hollywood. While many reviled her for doing it, hers is a much more realistic reflection of what the body of a woman in her fifties or sixties actually looks like. Let me tell you, Jack Nicholson's body doesn't look much better either, but he was not reviled for it. There still continues to be a double standard for men and women, when it comes to excess avoirdupois.

Dermot Mulroney is terrific as the sensitive, easy going groom to be who seems to lack the full quid. Mulroney makes his character quite a likable one. Unfortunately, Hope Davis, as Jeannie Schmidt, serves to make her character a thoroughly unpleasant one. It is unclear, however, whether this was the intended effect. Howard Hesseman is wonderful as the groom's father, Larry Hertzel, and he gets a lot of mileage out of this bit part. Lou Cariou is excellent as Schmidt's erstwhile best friend, Ray.

All in all, this a film well worth watching. The baby boomers out there should take note. It is still not too late to avoid ending up like Schmidt.

In a culture where who you are is generally the answer to the question "What do you do?", Schmidt is suddenly nobody. He has no hobbies, pets, or outside interests. Only a wife of 42 years, Helen (June Squibb), with whom he feels only a fading connection, and one good male pal, with whom he has an apocalyptic falling out. An example of Warren's biggest thrill of an empty day is a sundae at the local Dairy Queen. Sure, he's recently purchased, at Helen's urging, a 35-foot Winnebago in which they'll tour the country. She's enthused; he's not. But it shortly becomes a mute point as Helen abruptly dies soon into the film. At the funeral, Warren is joined by his semi-estranged daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis) and her fiance Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), both over from Denver for the burial. Once they've returned to Colorado, Schmidt's appearance and lifestyle deteriorates. Then he decides to set out in the Winnebago for Denver, ostensibly to attend his daughter's nuptials, but also with the hope of talking her out of marrying the "numbskull".

Jack Nicholson turns in perhaps one of his best roles playing a man desperately seeking meaning and stimulation in a barren existence, certainly at 180 degree from the actor's own life. And he stumbles across more stimulation than he wants with Roberta Hertzel (Kathy Bates), the divorced and unabashedly irrepressible mother of Randall, in a hot tub scene that is tribute to the healthy self-image and self-assurance of Ms. Bates. Davis and Mulroney are both good as Hope and Randall respectively, the former who has Warren as a perpetual source of exasperation, and the latter who would cause clinical depression in any prospective father-in-law. And, lo and behold, there's Howard Hesseman as Larry, Randall's natural father. Remember him as Johnny "Fever" in the TV sitcom WKRP IN CINCINNATI?

Despite a depressing undertone, especially for one like myself onIy 12 years from retirement, I very much enjoyed ABOUT SCHMIDT except for the ending, which I thought too contrived, too pat, and not likely to buoy Warren up over the long haul. It is, however, good PR for those organizations that solicit one's sponsorship of a Third World child. Was there an agenda here?