***1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Hope Davis, and Dermot Mulroney
Directed & co-written by Alexander Payne
2002
125 min R
Is it a warning for the young? Maybe “About Schmidt” is a cynical daydream in the mind of the young upstart who’s replaced Schmidt and taken over his office. Upon reaching retirement, Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) finds that despite his house, his wife, and his pension, he has nothing to show for his life. Schmidt considers himself an utter failure. He is irritated by everything his wife does, especially the way she is set to enjoy retirement despite his obvious disillusionment.
As for his daughter (Hope Davis of “American Splendor”), the joy he feels at having helped bring her into the world is palpable. I recall watching old home movies with my parents and listening to their bellowing laughter, and thinking that parenting has been the great adventure of their lives. Yet even his sense of accomplishment with her is threatened when he thinks of her impending wedding to a nincompoop (Dermot Mulroney) with the mustache and mullet of a relief pitcher.
In his Winnebago, possibly with crashing on his mind, he sets out from his dreary life in Omaha for her wedding in the dreary part of Denver. With each resolution and reassessment he makes in big sky country, we think he’s finally starting to see some value in himself, but each resolution fails. The only possible exception is the poor kid in Africa whom he “adopts”—i.e. writes one check a month because the TV told him to—but even this thread ends ambiguously.
Still, the movie functions as a comedy, with Nicholson in a bumbling and losing battle to maintain his dignity, and because making it a drama would be unbearable. Part of why it works is because there is no villain, just well-meaning dopes who get on Schmidt’s nerves. It’s the kind of movie you watch with your spouse and pause every couple of minutes to tell her how you’re going to try avoiding what’s happening to Schmidt, or at least what your version of what’s happening to Schmidt is going to be.
Oscar nominations include Best Actor for Nicholson and Supporting Actress Kathy Bates, in a juicy, earthy role as the nincompoop’s mother. With this movie and Oscar nominees “Election” and “Sideways,” director/screenwriter Alexander Payne has made quite the trilogy of disappointed American men entering or leaving middle-age. “About Schmidt” is the most cynical, the most difficult to watch, and probably the purest of the three.
Finished Thursday, June 16th, 2005
Copyright © 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
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