Review: About Schmidt

Jack Nicholson stars as Warren Schmidt, a recently retired actuary whose 42 year marriage to wife Helen (June Squibb) comes to an end with her sudden passing. Unsure of what to do with himself in the latter stages of life, he drives off in the huge RV Helen had bought, and goes to visit his daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis). Jeannie, about to marry a mullet-sporting waterbed salesman named Randall (Dermot Mulroney) whom Warren disapproves of, is rather cold in receiving news of her father’s impending arrival. So Warren decides to take in some pit-stops along the way. As the wedding day inches closer, Warren slowly starts to realise that his comfortable-yet-boring existence isn’t all it could’ve been. Before Helen’s passing, Warren had responded to a child sponsorship ad and the film is narrated by Warren writing letters to a Tanzanian boy named Ndugu, whom he is sponsoring, telling the boy all about what he is currently going through, with little concern paid to the appropriateness or interest this might have for such a young, underprivileged boy millions of miles away. Kathy Bates plays Randall’s free-spirited, sexually uninhibited mother, and Len Cariou plays a family friend of Warren and Helen.

I was going to say that if you combined “Everybody’s Fine” with “The Descendants”, you’d get this 2002 melancholic comedy/drama from Alexander Payne (“Election”, “Sideways”). However, this sad, thoughtful, occasionally uproarious film succeeds beautifully and movingly where the other two, later films never quite got it right, despite Payne also directing “The Descendants”. It’s a film that is constantly working on two levels, so that even when you think it’s only being dramatic, there’s some kind of humour or black irony just beneath the surface. And I think that’s one of the things that “The Descendants” should’ve but failed to provide, and something that some people didn’t even seem to notice about this film. It’s a lot more subversive and a lot less traditional than it first appears (Unlike “The Descendants” or “Everybody’s Fine”, which were very much formula filmmaking to a clichéd and disappointing degree).

Both “About Schmidt” (loosely based on a novel by Louis Begley) and “The Descendants” utilise an infrequent narration, but the results couldn’t be more different. In “About Schmidt” the narration, provided by the title character’s letters to his six year-old Tanzanian sponsored child, works on several levels. Yes, there’s the basic level of this 66 year-old man narrating his story through these letters, because it has been suggested that he write to the child to tell him a bit about himself. But it also can be seen in blackly humorous, ironic fashion too, as Schmidt’s rantings and ravings are not only wholly inappropriate to be viewed by a child, not only is he too young to read or understand them, but the letters are insensitive and self-absorbed. A kid from Tanzania, struggling with problems of malnutrition and poverty, doesn’t give a flying fuck about your self-absorbed, middle-class white guy problems, pal! Schmidt is hilariously un-self aware, and Payne is all-too aware of how sappy and predictable the film could’ve been if it just operated on that first level. But on top of that there’s even a third level to how this narration works. Yes, Schmidt is lacking in self-awareness, he is completely self-absorbed, but that’s what makes him, and the film itself, so sad. The narration allows us into the head of an otherwise not terribly communicative person. It reveals that he is a sad, lonely man, who perhaps has spent the majority of his life in his own comfortable little world, not having to rely on or care about anyone else except himself and maybe his wife. Now that she’s gone, he starts to realise just how lonely he truly is, and probably realises just how close the end of his life likely is. And what is there to show for it? He’s lost his job, his wife, his family don’t really want anything to do with him. He needs something, anything. A connection. To have made a difference in someone’s life. But has he realised this too late? That’s part of what makes the final scene so affecting (though it’s interestingly open to interpretation as to whether that final scene is meant to end things on a happy or sad note). You see, there’s so much going on in this film with just that one element.

But there’s much more to this film than just its narration. For starters, this is one of the best performances of Jack Nicholson’s acclaimed (but uneven) career. The performance is all the more effective because Nicholson is so much unlike his usual dynamic persona. For once, he’s playing a small, insignificant man, and although Warren Schmidt is self-absorbed (hence the film’s title), there is a definite lack of ego from Smilin’ Jack here. You won’t see very many of his overtly familiar acting tics and facial expressions here, it’s a relatively restrained and wonderful performance. I liked him in “As Good as it Gets”, but his Oscar nomination here should’ve turned into a win, it’s the better performance of the two by far. He’s backed up by a fine cast, but Dermot Mulroney and Kathy Bates steal just about their every scene. Mulroney, with the worst mullet I’ve seen outside of...well, my former self (my teenage years were largely unkind), is absolutely hilarious. He plays a complete douchebag no-hoper, but a surprisingly earnest and well-meaning one. You can see- and probably agree with- why Warren feels Mulroney’s Randall is not good enough for his daughter, but at the same time, you don’t like yourself for thinking it, ‘coz poor Randall really does mean well. He’s just completely fucking useless on a molecular level. Bates, meanwhile, let’s it all hang out, literally, as his free-spirited, yet sometimes critical mother (Howard Hesseman, meanwhile, is underused but well-cast as her windbag ex-husband). The added dose of energy and good cheer that Bates (a wonderful actress) gives off assures one that we’re not just laughing at her. Hope Davis is perfectly fine as Warren’s estranged daughter, but I have to say that I had very little sympathy for her character at all. She might be nervous as hell about the wedding and her dad might’ve left it a bit late to start caring about her, but she’s a selfish bitch to be honest.

If you’re looking for a film that will have you laughing and maybe even crying, sometimes even in the same scene, this film might be for you. It’s also a thought provoking film. Whether Payne is really mocking Randall and his family, or criticising Warren for doing so, or even both, there’s still a message here. A lot of people seeing the film might worry that they will end up like Warren; Old, retired, all alone, unneeded, and unsure if there is anything to show for all the years they have been alive. Are Payne and co-writer Jim Taylor (“Sideways”, “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”) suggesting that this is inevitable? Or is there hope for Warren? Personally I think the ending tips the scales a teeny bit in one direction, but it’s not ham-fisted at all, and I’m not even 100% certain. Even at the film’s conclusion, Payne is giving us more than one possible interpretation.

This is unquestionably one of the year’s best films and easily Payne’s best to date. You’ll laugh, you might cry, and you might just change the way you live your life as a result.

Rating: B+