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ABOUT
SCHMIDT
With no job, no wife, and no family, Warren
is desperate to find something meaningful in his thoroughly unimpressive
life. He sets out on a journey of self-discovery.
Review by Darrel Manson
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CREDITS
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 Directed
by Alexander Payne
Novel by Louis
Begley
Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
Jack Nicholson .... Warren Schmidt
Kathy Bates .... Roberta Hertzel
Hope Davis .... Jeannie Schmidt
Dermot Mulroney .... Randall Hertzel
June Squibb .... Helen Schmidt
Howard Hesseman .... Larry Hertzel
Len Cariou .... Ray Nichols
Harry Groener .... John
Connie Ray .... Vicki Rusk
Mark Venhuizen .... Duncan Hertzel
Cheryl Hamada .... Saundra
Phil Reeves .... Minister in Denver
Matt Winston .... Gary Nordin, Warren's Replacement
James M. Connor .... Randall's Best Man (as James Michael Connor)
Jill Anderson .... Bridesmaid Reading St. Paul
Judith Hart .... Woman Mourning Helen
Marilyn Tipp .... Neighbor Lady
Robert Kem .... Priest in Omaha (as Reverend Robert Kem)
Tung Ha .... Frat Kid
James Crawley .... Other Frat Kid
Steve Heller .... Tire Store Employee
Tom Belford .... Funeral Director
Produced
by
Bill Badalato .... executive producer
Michael Besman .... producer
Harry Gittes .... producer
Rachael Horovitz .... executive producer
Original Music by Rolfe Kent
Cinematography by James Glennon
Film Editing by Kevin Tent
Casting by Lisa Beach, John Jackson, and Sarah Katzman
Production Design by Jane Ann Stewart
Art Direction by T.K. Kirkpatrick and Pat Tagliaferro
Set Decoration by Teresa Visinare
Costume Design by Wendy Chuck
MPAA:
Rated R for some language and brief nudity.
Runtime: 125 min / France:124 min (Cannes Film Festival)
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
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TRAILERS
AND CLIPS
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CD
SOUNDTRACK
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About Schmidt (Score)
Rolfe Kent
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1. The
adventurer
2. Telling Ndugu about the family
3. About Schmidt
4. Schmidt went to Denver
5. Randall's room
6. Guiltily escaping the rusks
7. Helen goes; Schmidt stays
8. Of life after Helen
9. The fury of Schmidt
10. Shopping with Schmidt
11. Missing Helen
12. Riverside prayer
13. Dinner with Randall's relatives
14. Schmidt revisited his alma mater
15. Schmidt at the wedding
16. Omaha return
17. Ndugu's painting
18. What I really want to say
19. The end credits of About Schmidt
20. Constantine & Warren
21. Afrikaan beat - Bert Kaemphert
22. Ndugu letter
23. Interview with Alexander and Rolfe (Interview) |
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POSTER
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No
available poster as of January 07, 2003
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BOOK
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About Schmidt (Ballantine Reader's Circle)
by Louis Begley
Albert
Schmidt is a retired lawyer who misses his recently deceased wife,
has an unhealthy diet, is a mild anti-Semite and owns a nice home
in the Hamptons he feels compelled to offer to his daughter as a
wedding present. Said daughter, Charlotte, is a yuppie in all the
worst ways. She handles public relations for tobacco companies,
doesn't want the house in the Hamptons, and is about to marry a
buttoned-up Jewish lawyer. The conflict takes off from there in
this finely told tale of retirement, inheritance, and death.
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AVAILABILITY
ON VIDEO AND DVD
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SYNOPSIS
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 Warren
Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) has arrived at several of life's crossroads
all at the same time. To begin with, he is retiring from a lifetime
of service as an actuary for Woodmen of the World Insurance Company,
and he feels utterly adrift. Furthermore, his only daughter Jeannie
(Hope Davis) is about to marry a boob. And his wife Helen (June Squibb)
dies suddenly after 42 years of marriage.
With no job, no wife, and no family, Warren is desperate to find something
meaningful in his thoroughly unimpressive life. He sets out on a journey
of self-discovery, exploring his roots across Nebraska in the 35-foot
motor home in which he had planned to drive around the country with
his late wife. His ultimate destination is Denver, where he hopes
to bridge the gulf between himself and his somewhat estranged daughter
by arriving early to help with her wedding preparations. Unfortunately,
he hates the groom-to-be Randall (Dermot Mulroney), a profoundly mediocre,
mediocre, underachieving waterbed salesman. To make matters worse,
Warren is appalled by the free-spirited nature and boorish behavior
of his soon-to-be in-laws (Kathy Bates and Howard Hesseman). Warren
grows swiftly convinced that his new purpose in life is to stop his
daughter's marriage.
 During
this darkly comic and painful odyssey, Warren details his adventures
and shares his observations with an unexpected new friend and confessor
-- Ndugu Umbo, a six-year-old Tanzanian orphan whom he sponsors for
$22 a month through an organization that advertises on TV. From these
long letters filled with a lifetime of things unsaid, Warren begins
-- perhaps for the first time -- to glimpse himself and the life he
has lived.
Directed by Alexander Payne from a screenplay by Payne and Jim Taylor,
the team behind the Oscar-nominated Election, About Schmidt
is a wryly observed slice of American life. Produced by Harry Gittes
(Breaking In, Little Nikita, Goin South) and Michael Besman (Bounce,
The Opposite of Sex), the film is executive produced by Bill Badalato
(Men of Honor, Unstrung Heroes).
About Schmidt (rated R) will be released in New York, Los Angeles
and Omaha on December 13th, 2002 and will expand on December 20th,
2002 and January 3rd, 2003. -- © New Line Cinema |
REVIEW
BY
DARREL MANSON
Pastor,
Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA
http://netministries.org/see/churches/ch01198
Darrel
has an incredible love and interest in the cinematic arts. His reviews
usually include independent and significantly important film.
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 Warren
Schmidt (masterly portrayed by Jack Nicholson) is at one of those
points in life in which one can look back and assess what we have
done with the life we have had. I think he was surprised when he
looked back and saw how empty it had been.
GREAT HUMOR
There is great humor in About Schmidt -- especially for someone,
like me, who at least can see retirement on the far horizon. From
an entertainment point of view, the humor in itself is worth seeing
the film. But under the humor there are serious issues the film
is dealing with.
 About
Schmidt opens with him sitting in his empty office watching
the clock click the last few seconds to five o'clock on his last
day before he retires. There are boxes piled up of the work he has
done, but he's soon to discover that in reality, the sum of his
life amounts to very little.
 A
ROAD FILM
A good part of the film is a road movie in which he searches for
some meaning of what his life has been. Is there enough to his life
for him to be able to reconnect? Before long, he discovers that
he has lost everything that has defined his life: his job, his wife
(and even his faith in his wife), his home (in a way), even his
birthplace.
 UNWORTHY
PEOPLE?
Another part of the film deals with Schmidt dealing with his daughter's
impending wedding. When he arrives in Denver a few days before the
wedding, he discovers a family of in-laws that he feels is woefully
unworthy of his own family. He tries to convince his daughter not
to take this road with her life. In fact, he is really rejecting
his own life.
 DESPERATE
TO CONNECT
About Schmidt forces us to see the world through Schmidt's eyes.
Everyone he meets seems to be exaggerated, especially in their faults.
Could his future son-in-law's family really be that oddball? Could
the family he meets in the RV park really be that happy? Yet, as
easily as he sees the faults in everyone else, he fails to see the
failures of his own life. He is desperate to be connected with someone,
but whenever he gets a chance, he refuses to connect. He is a lonely
man who keeps getting lonelier.
LIKE A PRAYER
Throughout the film, Schmidt writes very personal letters to Ndugu,
a six year old orphan he sponsors in Africa through a child rescue
organization. He reveals things to Ndugu that would be uncomfortable
for an adult to listen to. Ndugu becomes his confessor and confidant.
In a sense, his letters to Ndugu are like a prayer to some distant,
impersonal God. He wants to be heard and understood, although the
things he writes are obviously beyond the child's understanding.
When the answer finally comes from Ndugu, it just emphasizes the
emptiness to Schmidt's life.
 DESPAIR
About Schmidt is a film that focuses on despair. As Schmidt
seeks some identity and meaning for his life, he falls deeper and
deeper into despair. The end of the movie is somewhat open-ended.
It could be interpreted as having some hope, but for me it was even
more despair. By the end of the movie there is nothing left to give
any joy to his life. He has searched for meaning and comes up, as
his office was at the beginning, empty.
SOME HOPE
It seems this is the season for movies about despair. The
Hours and Far From Heaven
also deal with a great amount of despair. About Schmidt is
a comic look at despair (as incongruous as that may sound). All
of these may offer some small sliver of hope in the end, but each
(including About Schmidt) sends the viewer out of the theater
with the taste of despair still in his or her mouth.
Spiritual
Connections on despair and hope -click
here
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PHOTOS
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Continue:
Review
-click here
Trailers, Photos -click here
About this Film -click here
Spiritual Connections -click
here
Forum -click
here |
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COMMENT
ON THIS FILM
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BULLETIN
BOARD (Rules)
Post
your thoughts in the forum
View or post comments -click
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Your
Private Comments.
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What are your personal thoughts? I also welcome your spiritual
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within two weeks.
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About Schmidt ©
2002 New Line Cinema. All Rights Reserved.
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