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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
About Schmidt
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  out of 4
Review by Susan Granger
3½ stars out of 4
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The glory of this character study is the magnificent Jack Nicholson.
As 66 year-old Warren Schmidt, a retired Omaha insurance company executive, he
questions the significance of his life. He's irritated by his wife (June Squibb)
of 42 years and has no desire to roam around the country in their 35-foot
Winnebago. Watching television late one night, he impulsively signs up with
Childreach as a foster parent. Then in a series of wildly inappropriate letters
to Ndugu Umbo, an illiterate six year-old Tanzanian boy, Schmidt pours his
anger, frustration and remorse. Most of all, he's disappointed that his beloved
and only daughter (Hope Davis) is about to marry Randall Hertzel (Dermot
Mulroney), a dimwitted loser who sells waterbeds. Hoping to change her mind, he
drives to Denver, where he discovers more about what life really means than he
ever imagined.
What ensures our fixation on the screen is Jack, Jack, Jack. He seems
totally liberated as an actor. We seem to be gazing right into his soul as he
delivers a ferociously riveting, Oscar-caliber performance. In a supporting role
that includes a comic, nude hot-tub scene, Kathy Bates is amazing and
pitch-perfect, as are the rest of the cast. Problem is: filmmakers Alexander
Payne and Jim Taylor's ("Citizen Ruth," "Election") bleak script which depicts
America's heartland as a contemporary bastion of tacky, beaten-down boredom,
observing and commenting on the pathetic emptiness and alienation of those
facing retirement age. Ultimately, it's a depressing, existential soul-searching
vision of a sad, lonely man who is desperate to discover a shred of purpose. On
the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "About Schmidt" is a perceptive, satirical,
yet profoundly affecting 9 - and Jack Nicholson's performance is one of the
season's must-sees.
Copyright © 2002 Susan Granger
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