Review Summary and Plot Commentary about About Schmidt
Warren Schmidt has just retired and is now living a quiet life with his wife. His daughter is now getting married to a water bed salesman, and his wife has now died of a vacuum cleaner accident. Now Warren is going to go on a road trip in his Winerbergo, and meet his daughter just in time for her wedding. He also meets his son-in-law's parents, and finds out his old house was destroyed, and replaced by a used car shop.
--Estefan Ellison, Resident Scholar
At the age of 66, native Nebraskan Warren Schmidt retires from his lifelong job as an actuarial expert with an insurance company. His wife looks forward to a happy retirement and badgers him into getting a huge RV. On a whim, he decides to sponsor an orphaned boy in Tanzania through an aid agency. But Schmidt is jolted out of his routines when his daughter (who lives in Denver) announces she's getting married to a jovial born-again who always has some get-rich-quick scheme going and who Schmidt judges to be clearly unfit to marry Jeannie, and his wife suddenly dies. After a few weeks of living amid a mounting piles of cans, dirty dishes, and unwashed clothing, and then discovering his wife once had an affair with his best friend, Schmidt questions everything his life has been and hits the road in his RV to drive to Denver and stop Jeannie's marriage. He has some adventures along the way, meeting friendly strangers and visiting his birthplace and college, and further comic developments when he arrives in Denver and meets his potential in-laws. All along the way, he writes letters to Ndugu, the boy in Tanzania, which in voiceover communicate his thoughts and point of view. On the surface, this 2002 film (co-written and directed by Alexander Payne, who was similarly responsible for the quirky and memorable "Election" and "Citizen Ruth") is nothing much -- hardly anything terribly dramatic happens -- but Nicholson turns in an astoundingly sincere, funny, and ultimately moving performance as an elderly, uptight Midwesterner who is nonplused by four-letter words in a woman's mouth and who flees in terror when a female puts the moves on him. It is unquestionably Oscar-worthy work.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
"About Schmidt", based on the novel by Louis Begley, stars Jack Nicholson as "everyman" who reviews his life achievements and comes up short. A retired insurance executive, he finds no safe haven in a relationship with his daughter after he is suddenly widowed. His adventures in a RV come to naught as he discovers his childhood home razed to make way for a gas station, and Kansas U where he attended college peopled with students uninterested in his Hummel collection.
The film picks up momentum when Warren Schmidt arrives in Denver to attend the wedding of his daughter, played by Hope Davis who persists in marrying the clueless Dermot Mulrooney, (Randall) despite Schmidt's endless pleas for her to reconsider. The crazy wedding takes place and Schmidt returns home, thinking himself a failure. But he is redeemed by the receipt of a loving drawing from an African foster child he has sponsored. The movie is saved from ordinariness by a madcap scene in which Schmidt tries to sleep in a waterbed and another comic episode in which Randall's mother, played by Kathy Bates, tries to seduce Schmidt in a hot tub.
--Betty-Jeanne Korson, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of About Schmidt
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Family, struggling with
Yes
Struggle with:
- Daughter
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Struggle with
- midlife crisis
Road trip
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- business executive
Age:
- 60's-90's
Eccentric:
Yes
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average
Unclothed?
- Chest and Buttocks
Events of movie makes character more...
- caring
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn straight
Body type
- (woman) very skinny
How much in movie?
- 40%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Female
Age:
- 60's-90's
Eccentric:
Yes
- wild
- eccentric
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavey
unclothed?
- full frontal
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- West
- Midwest
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- nice, like Andy/Opie/Aunt Bee
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- encouraged
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
If soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Orchestra/classical
Is this movie based on a
- book
