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About Schmidt
***
Cinema
Reviews - Week of January 24, 2003
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
125 minutes. Directed by Alexander Payne. Written by Alexander Payne, Jim
Taylor; from the novel by Louis Begley. Starring Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates,
Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Howard Hesseman, Len Cariou, Harry
Groener, Connie Ray.
"About Schmidt" is one of those
movies like "American Beauty" that fit squarely into the comedy bracket but
still rely on strong dramatic overtones. I mention "American Beauty" in
particular because this film's trailer strives hard to point out parallels.
It has the "American Beauty" music, a voice-over that reminds us of Kevin
Spacey's character, and clips of scenes that touch on similar plot points.
Heck, this is a review of "About Schmidt", and I've mentioned the "American
Beauty" title three times. Whoops, four times.
Well, like "American Beauty", the movie is about
a guy who has reached his crisis point. He's gotten to that stage where it
looks like this is all there is -- time has passed quicker than expected,
marriage is based on habit more than spark and it's time to wonder if life
has accomplished anything of value. Warren Schmidt is in his sixties, has
just retired from his career as an insurance company pen-pusher, finds that
a slick young buck has replaced him and it seems he has nothing to show for
himself but a stack of papers that no longer need to be used.
Warren is played by Jack Nicholson as an old guy
who plods around in a dull cap and suit, overweight and unremarkable. He
seems like someone content to be anonymous and domestic, but narration reveals
that it just ain't so. Not any more. He wonders if retirement will bring
him any joy. He regrets not knowing his daughter better, and worries that
her upcoming marriage plans are a recipe for disaster. He sees a charity
ad on TV, calls the number and begins to sponsor a 6-year old Tanzanian named
Ndugu. In letters to the boy, Warren pours out his worries in a stream of
consciousness. It's hardly appropriate, but he just can't help
it.
Something happens that frees Warren from
responsibility and sets his thoughts racing, so he gets in his camper van,
leaves the suburbs of Manhattan and begins a cross-country journey that passes
through his boyhood roots of Nebraska and ends up in Denver, the home of
his future in-laws. What the trip offers is a series of disturbances -- Warren
wants to improve himself but can't help being irritated by stupid answer
phone messages, the large and small idiosyncrasies of people on the way,
the hysterics of his daughter and the plain incompatibility of her future
husband's family.
One of the keys to the movie is the Nicholson
performance. He masters the look of someone wanting to get the hell outta
here and politely trying to hide it. There is a hilarious edge hanging over
many scenes, like when he's trying to communicate with his wrongheaded potential
son-in-law (Dermot Mulroney), whose haircut looks like a dead beaver and
who talks like Ted Logan on a slow day. The comic high points come from
Nicholson's interaction with Kathy Bates, who plays Mulroney's mother. While
Nicholson is reserved and uneasy, she's outrageously big and loud, and happy
to drop details about her hysterectomy into casual conversation. When she
gets into the hot tub and starts making suggestions... oh boy.
Nicholson is not only skilful in the obvious humorous
moments, but manages to give comic nuance to the bleakest of the drama. In
the opening scene, we see him sit at his desk on the final day of his job,
morosely staring at the clock and waiting for 5 on the dot. An obvious point
is being made -- Warren is too rigid and locked into routine to do so much
as go home early when he's about to leave for good -- but Nicholson's face
is so blank, and so lacking in excitement, that he brings an absurdist slant
to the drabness.
"About Schmidt" was directed by Alexander Payne,
who has indeed said that the absurd is his speciality, and therefore knows
himself well. The tone of his movie is a strange and fascinating balance
of compassion and satire, riotous laughter and quiet drama. It doesn't have
the wacky energy of his high school political comedy "Election", but it is
smart and perceptive in different ways, and a little more forgiving about
its characters. Warren Schmidt finds things wrong with everyone around him,
but he also looks inside himself, and ends up acknowledging current imperfections
as well as past regrets.
The ending may strike a false note with viewers
looking for a more all-encompassing conclusion, but I like the way it puts
things into perspective, and even then only to a certain degree. The conclusion
of "American Beauty" always bothered me -- it expresses satisfaction, but
pretty damn selfishly. The last scene of "About Schmidt" might seem like
a sweet little easy answer, but it's actually an avoidance of easy answers.
Hanging around the glimmer of achievement is still a lot of missed opportunity
and failure to make a difference. I guess that's life.
COPYRIGHT©
2003 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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