There is an initial carefree time in life, and then the ghost of death overtakes you. All the men I knew were panicked about getting old, thinking endlessly about their age. The obsession with age begins very early - I met it in my twenty-five years. I decided to stop, get out of the game. I lead a quiet and joyless life. In the evening I read, make myself tinctures, brew coffee or tea. I spend all weekends with my family, a lot of work with my nephew and nieces. However, sometimes I feel the need for a man, I get scared at night, I hardly fall asleep. Of course, I have tranquilizers, I have sleeping pills, but that doesn’t always help. In fact, I would like life to pass as soon as possible. Michelle Houellebecque Elementary particles. - Do you like solitude? she asked, propping her cheeks with her hands. - Traveling alone, eating alone, sitting in class away from everyone. - I don't like loneliness. I just don't make extra acquaintances, I said. In order not to be disappointed in people once again. Haruki Murakami Norwegian forest Tooru Watanabe Midori Kobayashi A great film about death, loneliness, sad melancholy. A touching movie. Sharp. Thanks. Nicholson is incomparable.Recommend the movie.🤓
Warren Schmidt is 66 years old. After years of hard work, he is finally retiring. And it would be fine, but it seems that Schmidt’s resignation is not at all happy. What else can a man of his age do? Playing crossword puzzles? Watch TV from morning to night? Is it futile to try to train a young man of his age, which he has already safely forgotten? All hope remains only on the enterprising wife, who wants to start a “new chapter” with the purchase of a house on wheels, but here the unexpected happens in the form of her sudden death. So Warren Schmidt after 42 years of marriage is completely alone, unable to maintain order in the house and buy adequate food.
Schmidt himself resembles a more mundane version of Scrooge McDuck. He is wealthy, but the stingy (he bought the cheapest coffin for his wife’s funeral), restrained, but not without compassion, wants to change, but has no idea what features he needs to change. His only daughter is distant and unable to dedicate her time to her father and is preparing for a wedding with a husband he cannot stand. In the end, Schmidt decides to take the initiative in his own hands and goes on a journey. In words, it seems as if he wants to stop the wedding, but the real goal is much more global - to find himself and finally decide whether the previous life was not in vain.
Alexander Payne, unfortunately, is not as revered among modern author directors as Wes Anderson and the Coen Brothers, although his cinema also stands out for its special features. First of all, these are stories about lonely people who are busy digging into their past. There is always a bit of absurdity in his plot and a tiny bit of malicious irony. With them, Payne’s films look like tragicomic parables, in which a lot of life is guessed. About Schmidt is one of his early works, where the director's handwriting has already been formed, but there is still a field for trying something new.
Due to the play of the brilliant Jack Nicholson, who for this role, unfortunately, is celebrated much less than for Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Shining, we see all the shades of loneliness. Anger at the world, regret for the past, fatigue from monotony. All this genius actor plays, it seems, at the peak of his skill. And thanks to the competent script and directing of Payne, the story about Schmidt penetrates into the very confines of the soul.
But the most remarkable moments of the film, perhaps, those where the main character “communicates” with the Tanzanian boy Ndugu, whom he suddenly bored decided to financially help. He sends him money with letters, where he talks about his life and dumps all the painful emotions on him. What Schmidt originally did to combat boredom turned into a full-fledged session with a therapist, where the therapist is himself. We'll never see the boy, we won't know the look. Only his age (6 years) and a drawing symbolizing gratitude for all material assistance. But that’s enough to make Schmidt feel the importance of the moment he cries in the final scene. In it, he finally realizes that he had at least some significance for the world.
About Schmidt is an emotional film that will go not only to the elderly, but also to those who have long imagined their old age. Those who have thought at least once about the meaning of their own life, about its meaning. After all, one way or another, we will all have a moment of reflection, when all the moments of life merge into one point, in yourself.
Alexander Payne is a brilliant director. He has very few films, but there are already two brilliant masterpieces. I want to tell you a little about one of these. This movie came out a long time ago and I just watched it. My mother advised me to watch this film, she is my main critic and I completely trust her taste. So, a little bit about this movie...
The actor Jack Nicholson was always very calm. A lot of people here call movies where he's kind of brilliant, and I start watching these movies, and I always think he's acting normally. But I still found him one movie where he plays just amazingly. To his acting in this film just do not complain. In this film, we will show the ordinary life of a man who recently retired. What do I do? How can I continue to live?
Yes, the hero will face a lot of questions. Can he find the answers? Watch this movie and you'll find out. I think it's the best part of Jack Nicholson. He plays so easy, and you sit there and worry about his hero. Alexander Payne knows how to make true stories. He made an amazing drama about a very strong man. All Jack Nicholson fans need to know this movie.
And I also wanted to say that in this film plays the brilliant actress Katie Bates. She has been nominated for various awards for this role. I was shocked to see what she did in this movie. An adult actress has already agreed to play in such a candid scene! I applaud her for a long time, a real actress.
This is a very serious drama. I would recommend it to all lovers of very clever paintings. I really liked this movie, so I will give it a very high rating. A masterpiece.
P.S.
As Jack Nicholson begins to read the letter at the end of the film, tears flowed from my eyes. Long applause for this brilliant actor.
It's a story about finding meaning. The meaning of life when you come to a state in which it seems that everything around you is not about you and not for you. When you seem superfluous. And wherever you go, whatever you do.
This is a very serious drama, albeit with a lot of comedic moments. It imbues you with such a sense of empathy for the hero that you want to really get up, get into the screen and cheer, something to help. It's a drama about awareness. Probably, full awareness of life and how and why to live it comes to us when we find ourselves before a very terrible moment – now you are almost superfluous, everything that was before is already somewhere far behind, although it seemed only yesterday.
It would seem that simple truths that should not be postponed for later, appreciate what is, accompany us in almost all works, and not only cinematic. But in this film, they hit the inner fears especially hard and launch the very “you were told.” The film seems to warn the viewer. It shows what can happen to any of us. After all, this picture is about a completely simple person.
The beautiful Jack Nicholson plays the main role here. And, in fact, it's a movie by one actor. In confirmation of his excellent performance in this film - Oscar nominations and victory in the Golden Globe.
We see a man who has worked all his life in the office. It is time to retire.
He doesn't know what to do. Out of boredom, he decides to make a donation to a child somewhere in Africa. He doesn’t seem to be close to his wife, they don’t understand each other. Moreover, she has long irritated him, but he did not have the strength to change anything. And so in everything, life signals that something is going wrong. However, Schmidt managed to overcome them and somehow get used to it.
After the tragedy, the main character reconsiders his life - a small epiphany occurs. And he knows what he can and must do, but it's probably too late.
I think this movie is a warning. A warning on how to wait for the right moment for your dreams all your life. First you need to save a little money – the family needs money. Now is not the right time. It is time to retire.
And as a result, it seems that the only person close to Schmidt is the same boy to whom he transferred a small amount.
An unusual character for Jack Nicholson. Plays great.
There is a category of films that very easily enter the viewer's confidence. They do not pose, do not tire of deep psychological research, do not claim the laurels of genius, but simply tell about our life, its troubles and problems, while trying to conduct a conversation “on equal terms”. In some ways, they can be described as exemplary “simple stories” told through cinema. Unfortunately, the further it becomes clearer that such paintings are in short supply today - what turned out well in the fifties (so far in this regard, Bergman's "Standard glade" is the benchmark), did well in the nineties (let's recall at least Lynch's "Simple Story"), in the new millennium looks not so great. Films that are supposed to be simple as life bring too much gloss and gloss, as if they were created not for the sake of truth, but to show off in front of the audience. As a result, we see a sea of not the most successful jokes and gags, a simulated melodramatic atmosphere and the complete absence of any memorable images or situation. However, fortunately, there are still conscious Hollywood directors seeking to correct the situation and, at a lot of risk, wandering into a very complex, dangerous and extremely delicate genre.
Alexander Payne, by the age of forty, who made several big-budget films with good actors, apparently decided to simultaneously raise the bar for the quality of his paintings and pour out on the screen the despair of the midlife crisis. Of course, the need for such a film as “About Schmidt”, straightforward, candid, clean, vital, is long overdue, and not so much for the cinema as for Jack Nicholson. The choice of the actor was probably obvious initially, because just a few years before Schmidt Nicholson in an unexpectedly strong melodramatic comedy “It’s Never Better” deeply revealed the role of an elderly misanthrope, forced to radically change his life philosophy. Schmidt continues the line of this entry into human subjectivity, suitable for the abyss of nothingness, while qualitatively enriching it with new strokes.
You can say a lot about Schmidt, but it is not worth it, because Nicholson once again managed to capture the main thing – not a scheme or an image of human individuality, but to display it in dynamics, with all the contradictions, inconsistencies and oddities. Apparently, this was not hindered (rather encouraged) and the creators of the picture, leaving behind the figure of Schmidt a trail of questions and riddles. Many viewers will probably perceive this component of the picture as a drawback - it is easier to perceive the hero as unconditionally positive or negative, his actions are much easier to condemn or justify if they are committed with an unambiguous orientation. But Schmidt’s figure is beautiful because his character hangs in an abstract ambiguity. The hero in this case it is impossible to fix or limit the characteristics, so all viewers here will be divided into three camps - some will say that Schmidt is kind and in essence almost holy, the second that he could not overcome his limited subjectivism and selfishness, finally locked in his loneliness (or rather refused to honestly play his role on a par with all), and still others will see in him an example of the paradox of the human soul - eternally fluid, indefinite and mysterious, everything that they will not condemn or approve of his actions, but deeply sympathize with his fate, which millions of the free life are now shared by him).
As you can see, the theme of the film is far from entertaining, but, on the contrary, deeply dramatic and philosophical. However, the entire film from the first to the last scene is imbued with characteristic humor of all varieties and colors. Payne with all truths and untruths will diversify the atmosphere, somewhat melancholic thanks to the plot (indeed, an old man with 40 years of experience, who has fumbled life in the office, is displaced by a young employee, his wife soon dies, and the only daughter cares more about being akin to the stupid family of her husband-prostophyle). Per unit of time there are several gags, social wit and jokes from the category of comedy positions. Of course, it is quite difficult to sit on two chairs, but pay tribute to Payne, he does it well, maybe because of the smooth rhythm of the narrative and the filigree acting of the big people of Hollywood, who subtly feel when it is not necessary to go into the explanation, but only give a hint at it. Be that as it may, the film successfully combines such seemingly diverse things as the relaxed atmosphere of “Meet the Parents” and the depth of the problems of being from Bergman’s “Earthly glade”. It is difficult to say how it turns out, but after watching there remains not only a feeling of alarming, aching longing for the transience of existence, but also a light plume of well-spent time, which is inherent in this very existence.
The plot design of the picture in itself is not too brilliant with originality - one or another plot twist can be predicted long before its implementation. However, this does not apply to the finale, which, despite the fact that nothing (!) happens, turns everything upside down. If in the bulk of the film even becomes purely entertaining, gravitating to the proven and classic texture of Hollywood comedy melodrama, then the ending moves the entire layer of the narrative into the sphere of primordial realism.
If you look closely, it becomes clear that in 125 minutes of the picture, nothing has changed in the space of history. This is Payne’s brilliant decision to avoid the playfulness that characterizes the finals of almost all modern films – he leaves the viewer bewildered and desperately hoping to see a happy or at least some finale. Life itself is an ever-delayed end and its waiting. “Whether I live twenty years or one day, it doesn’t matter,” Schmidt says at the end, shedding tears over his fate, his powerlessness to change this fateful world that lives by its own rules. Who can say what those tears are if he has not shed them? Grimas Nicholson miraculously betrays despair and some remote hope of deliverance, a hidden understanding that his attempt to somehow help his daughter or even a poor African boy was not a veiled act of selfish profanation, that his journey through the plains of America nurtured in his soul a bunch of wisdom and understanding before this terrible machine of life. Maybe it's a farce and he hasn't moved a step. Payne and Nicholson reliably guard the answer to this question - for this they bow the lowest.
Summing up, it is worth noting the incredibly easy form of story presentation, designed for maximum audience coverage - the perfectly revised texture of the novel, impeccable acting and very accurate technical work with the camera and music (which is really a lot) can make you return to Schmidt a couple of times. And, of course, the story itself is captivating in its openness and simplicity, pushing the viewer to pay attention to his fate, forcing him to finally enjoy even its most bitter moments.
You know, there are movies where you feel like you're coming back to life. I learned about this film, thanks to the mentions of many, that Jack Nicholson played an atypical role for himself in this film and was very interested, because I adore this actor.
About Schmidt is a comedy-inspired drama about old man Warren Schmidt, who retires into a boring routine. After the unexpected death of his wife, Schmidt decides for 9 years to do everything that he did not have time to do in his entire life and goes on a journey.
The first thing I would like to praise the film for is acting, especially Jack Nicholson. I've never seen this wonderful actor so depressed and infirm on screen. Rather, it has to do with Nicholson’s aging, but I think the actor has long wanted to play a character quite unlike him. I also liked Katie Bates, who was brilliant with her charisma.
The script is very strong. There are no plot lines in the film that lead nowhere. I loved the storyline with a letter to a boy from Africa. The main character is simply impossible not to empathize. Schmidt turned out to be a very sweet and kind old man who is only trying to find a piece of happiness in this cruel world and make it a little better.
I would recommend the film to anyone who has lost the taste of life and who cannot find himself in this world. I think it will be more useful to watch this wonderful film for young people to rethink all their views on life. "About Schmidt" - carries a long-known, but good morality. After all, it is not scary to be alone in old age, it is much worse to stay with those who make you feel lonely.
9 out of 10
Jack is one of the most outstanding actors! His play, reincarnation force with fading heart to watch the pictures, which describe the routine. ' About Schmidt' - a film about life, like a conveyor; or what we leave behind if we have no goals in life.
Schmidte's whole life is groundhog day. Wake up, work, sleep. A wife who always feeds. But there are no outbursts of emotion in this life, only routine. Fate gives him chances to change things, but he doesn't see them. It is difficult to live such a boring, routine life to start with 0. But changes in it still happen and it gives hope for something.
8 out of 10
I watched the film by Alexander Payne based on the book by Louis Begley “About Schmidt”. What drew attention was that one of my favorite actors is Jack Nicholson. This is a story about how a successful person in life got old, suddenly turned out to be no one needed.
Retirement. At the beginning of the film begins to smell a sense of deep loneliness of the protagonist. He is retiring from a job he has devoted his entire life to. It seems that everything has been achieved and you can go on vacation. A wife buys a car with the promising name "Adventure" and it seemed like a really new life would begin. But then everything goes to waste. The hero finds solace in correspondence with the African boy Ndugu, this gives the viewer an opportunity to understand himself more deeply.
Father and daughter. The hero raised a smart and beautiful daughter, did everything to provide for her. But she finds a groom not of his level from not so bad, but very strange family. Soon the wedding and the hero decides to come to his daughter early, because he has not seen her for so long. But the daughter is not up to him, she is all in business. Therefore, the hero goes on a trip to the places of his childhood and youth. But it's not like that either. Finally, he goes to the wedding, in agony tries to dissuade his daughter from the wrong choice, as it seems to him. But she's not his little Ginny anymore.
Jack Nicholson was nominated for an Oscar for the 12th time. And there's a reason. This is a very unusual image for the eternally young and full life of Jack Nicholson. Here he does not do anything supernatural as in “Eastwick Witches” or “The Shining”, but looks from the sidelines at the life events taking place around his hero. He did not play a doomed or punished character, but rather a man who had done things right all his life. Schmidt is a man who gave his whole life to one company and one woman.
And this is what led him to: an empty and lonely old age. But it's not that sad. The image of Schmidt is primarily life-affirming. His story teaches us simple truths – appreciate the moment, love those who are nearby, because life is fleeting.
The movie is full of funny moments. Let's say the scene by the toilet in the first half of the movie. She made me laugh. There are so many interesting moments. But above all, “About Schmidt” is a strong drama, over which you need to think.
Katie Bates deserves special attention. I remember her from the supporting role in the HBO series The Client is Always Dead. Her character is also full of oddities and will not leave the viewer indifferent. The other actors did well too, but it’s more of a writer’s work because they pale in comparison to the two above.
The picture deserves your attention. I recommend the inimitable Jack Nicholson to fans.
Motivating movies in the 21st century are nothing new. Each film tries to tell us how important it is to live life not in vain, tries to convince the viewer that life is so short and that is why you need to get new emotions, try everything and live this very life to glory. And if a person has watched a film of this kind 1 time - he will like it, however, if a person is often faced with such pictures, he will often see all sorts of clichés, notice that the compositions of the films are simply made to copy, and the message is one: live, because life is short. It turns out that a lot of good movies get disparaged because they’re just like all other motivating movies. But the movie I’m going to talk about is not like that, it’s different from other movies, it has its own charm, its own charm. I'm going to talk about this tape now.
Warren Schmidt is retiring after years at an insurance company, hoping to spend more time with his wife. But Schmidt begins to suspect that the pension completely took away everything that gave him any interest in life. There is another tragedy: his wife is dying. Now Schmidt must figure out whether he ever lived this way, try to convince himself that he does not exist in vain, and also reason with his daughter who wants to marry her husband a stupid guy, so that she did not make the same mistake that Schmidt himself made.
I could think for a long time about what is better in this film: the script or the direction, the atmosphere or the composition, etc. But I don’t see any sense in this, because the crew worked as a strong team should. No part of the group pulled the blanket over, and each member of the group made some equal contribution. There are films that want to celebrate the amazing work of the operator, there are those that elevate the director above all other participants, and there is About Schmidt, where each person is an important gear in such a complex mechanism. Thus, we can say – to which I, in fact, the whole paragraph and led the reader – that to single out someone’s work specifically would be very stupid.
In the film, the line between dramatic moments and comedy is felt: if the hero has just reflected on his importance to a sad melody, then immediately after a few seconds this scene can be interrupted by a sharp joke, and the sad melody is replaced by a dynamic and somehow kindly hooligan. The film crew did not want to focus only on drama or comedy, the team decided that it would be better to present all these reflections for the viewer in a fairly simple and easy style.
So what distinguishes this film from other films of this genre? My answer is a message. If many ribbons wanted to tell us: life is short – live for your pleasure, do what you have always been afraid to do, do bold deeds, squeeze all the juices out of your life so that death, taking you away, sees only pleasure and joy on your face, then everything is quite different. Cinema does not set itself the goal of making a person get the most out of life (although it happened that this kind of meaning jumped through a couple of dialogues / monologues, but there were quite a few of them) - the film only asks the question. It would seem: what is simple? Just answer the question. How did I change the world?” But the viewer really begins to analyze all his past actions, trying to prove to himself that he somehow changed the world. And the film does not poke on the screen people who have fun and are content with life, as it was in “Until played in the box”, here the main character has the same problems as us, the audience. He also tries to find himself, explain his existence and understand what his purpose is. Schmidt realizes that his life is meaningless, but realizes it too late. Digging into himself, he brings out new problems and new questions, tries to answer them.
I really liked the way I communicated with the audience. Schmidt, sending money to a poor African boy, tells him about himself, thereby giving certain information to the viewer. All the time it seemed that he was not writing to the boy, but to us, the audience. Each of his letters contains simple, seemingly simple commandments that are not so easy to observe in life: “Appreciate what you have”, “I doubt that I have changed the world in any way”, “I will soon die, but I am afraid because I have done nothing in my life”. And you can really put yourself in the shoes of that dying boy, you imagine he's sending you a letter. But it will not be enough just to pretend that you receive these letters: you also need to take something out of them, and you will take a lot of fresh thoughts out of them, I promise.
About Schmidt is a great comedy drama that will give you a lot of food for thought, a film that will forever remain in your memory, a movie that stands out among others for its kindness and sincerity.
Jack Nicholson. I’m not going to say it’s his best work, but it’s good, all the movies he plays are great, and this one is no exception. He played an ordinary old man here, which is a lot, but this is what attracts the film, the fact that everything is real here, as it happens in life. And in life it happens that you become unnecessary, no matter how irreplaceable you are, you will always find a replacement, good or bad, and one day you will still step aside. That's what happened to Schmidt.
Behind him were forty years of work in the insurance company, his wife and daughter and everything. For some it is an achievement, for others it is a complete failure. Probably, hardly any of today’s young people dream of such a life, at least most of them.
His journey, I think, was one of the best moments of his life, because after this trip he changed, he redefined life, on this trip he had time to be alone with himself.
Alexander Payne is not from the category of directors whose films are known to become hits, and the hype arises long before their premiere. But he has a different property, so to speak, some carte blanche: the films of Alexander Payne are regulars of the most prestigious awards, including the most cherished – the Oscar. Judge for yourself: the first tape of Payne “Citizen Ruth” still did not become a nominee for any of the competitions, but the next one – “Upstart” – is already a contestant for the Oscar for the best adapted script, to which Paine himself had a hand. Skip the picture “About Schmidt” and the subsequent one – “On the Roadside” – takes several of the most prestigious awards in the most prestigious categories, and “Descendants” and “Nebraska” again participate in winning prizes. But still the start for such achievements was the film “About Schmidt”.
The film “About Schmidt” is based on the novel by Louis Begley, his adaptation was carried out, in fact, by Alexander Payne himself and his frequent co-author Jim Taylor, who himself became the owner of the “Golden Knight” (the second title of the official “Oscar”) thanks to the film Payne. “About Schmidt” will tell, of course, about a certain Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson himself!), who retires, leaving his favorite job, his wife irritates him, and the young man of his beloved daughter generally drives him mad and even a party about retirement leads him to an inexhaustible feeling of apathy and boredom. But soon there are some permenas, like the passing of his wife, then skeletons begin to fall out of the closets, he gets behind the wheel and goes to his daughter, but she says on the phone that she can not accept him. Warren unwraps the van and travels to places of former glory, so to speak, to remember where he spent his life before and where he forgot.
The film moves in a leisurely mode, but Alexander Payne places accents so that both drama and melodrama and even comedy merge together, so that the picture can be safely called a strong, pure American tragicomedy. Even the first scene, when Warren Schmidt appears on the screen, brings a feeling of utter despondency, but despondency is not a film, but the inner state of a person. He carefully watches how the hands on the clock move, absolutely does not move, and there is a feeling that he is only thinking how to quickly leave this disgraced world. But over time, there is an understanding that the protagonist would give a lot to get his life back before he retires. But time moves inexorably, so he looks for new sources in order to start a new life. He even becomes the father of a child from Africa, to whom he writes letters, paying $22 for his maintenance. And it is only in these letters that he allows himself to express all those emotions that he is so used to hiding inside himself. This “invisible” child became his family even more than his own daughter.
With such an emotional film, Jack Nicholson could not help but show himself again from the best side. An actor who clearly has control over all roles, all images. He in “About Schmidt” with all his expressiveness demonstrated the collective image of an American pensioner who was not ready for loneliness, lack of work, he is completely unfit for the current existence, and therefore rushes to some extremes. And Nicholson’s gaze then plays with new colors when he finds something, when, as he thinks, he is ready to change his life. Jack Nicholson masterfully played his role and the fact that “About Schmidt” became an Oscar contestant is not a small merit of an outstanding actor of all times and peoples. But I would like to note not only Nicholson, but also Katie Bates, who struck her role. The actress is noticeable, and noticeable and texture. But she did such a feat in the movie "About Schmidt" that I wanted to applaud her standing up. Take a look at some of the other Bates films and then her role in the film and you'll see what I mean. Add to all this the sarcastic image, magnificently created, Bates and it will become clear why she received a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
"About Schmidt" is a film designed for the adult generation, with its philosophy of life after retirement, encouraging to recognize inside the viewer what values he has in the forefront. And I advise the younger generation to watch this picture to find out what the brilliant acting is.
9 out of 10
And on a clock without fifteen-three,
Time is like a river, you can’t go back.
Try it once, look around, look at it.
What did you do, what did you do, and who is happy?
K. Kinchev, the song "Mama"
Arthouse, almost devoid of a Hollywood flair, the film of American film director Alexander Payne “About Schmidt” in my personal conviction is among the best works of the film industry. This picture turns out to be incredibly close in spirit, understandable by its messages and quite clearly formulates all the raised problems of our being. And the starring actor Jack Nicholson becomes a kind of mirror image of ourselves.
Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) spent almost four decades in a big company, but was asked to give way to the younger generation and retire. It is a heavy blow for a person to feel useless, to realize that you got off the train. Like Mikhail Ulyanov’s character in Private Life (1982), Schmidt was delicately “thrown out.” Every day is like the previous one. The usual routine of the life spiral. When you are left “on the sidelines”, and apart from work, you do not have special hobbies and hobbies, it is fitting to really start slowly going crazy. As inconveniently the wife dies, this seemingly unshakable way of life also collapses.
Each of us has our own destiny, thoughts, fears, desires, weaknesses. Our lives are not always in our own hands. Circumstances are more severe than us and are cruel. Fighting them is a test of our character, our willpower. But is the man who lost almost everything at the outset of his life and found an outlet in letters to an African orphan boy weak? Maybe so. And that's the message of the film -- people like Schmidt, for the outward well-being of the lonely and amorphous, a significant part of society. Probably, the best should characterize the life credo of the personality of a phrase from one gangster film, which should be constantly asked yourself – “either you are cool or soft”.
Schmidt is in the second category. And Jack Nicholson masterfully reveals his hero. Meticulously and intently we look into his world, the world of a closed, rational and little emotional person. Despite the changing situation around, the hero almost does not undergo transformation, once again becoming a victim of circumstances, submissively following fate. It's probably too late to change. There is only a time of light sadness to look at a naked tree at a funeral, to give in to memories of a past childhood, to talk to the stars on the roof of the trailer. And to "confess sins" in letters to a six-year-old orphan boy from Africa. It is through these lines that Nicholson’s character communicates with the viewer. They try to be put into the mouth of those who are still young, warning them how not to live.
The picture of Alexander Payne “About Schmidt” does not seem difficult to understand and extremely deep, on the contrary – the director clearly and progressively demonstrates the main and obvious meaning, best characterized by the famous words of N. A. Ostrovsky – “The most expensive thing in a person is life.” It is given to him once, and it is necessary to live it in such a way that it is not painfully painful for the aimlessly lived years. The acting of Nicholson here is at the highest level, because he creates “behind the confident appearance of sadness” almost silently, with a look, wrinkles on the forehead, bent corners of the mouth, lowered hands and an uncertain step...
Our whole life is an endless search. Thinking: this is the cherished, we often make mistakes, and do not learn from mistakes. We are all alone and isolated in our own way. So is Warren Schmidt. Life ceased to suit him after "retirement" - And did she even do it? But now Warren finally has time to think, stop, rethink.
His daughter is like a completely stranger, whose number is somehow recorded in a phone book marked “daughter”. And distance has nothing to do with it. It's never about anything. It happens that children do not love their parents. Only a stamp in the passport and vague memories of childhood remained. My father loves me and he needs support. Yes, parents always "know" what is best for their beloved children. This topic is well illustrated here.
By the middle of the film, the image of Warren himself—during his journey—was a source of deep sympathy and regret. But he doesn't give up. He’s going to Denver, and he’s going to lose, but is he really going to lose? Absolutely not. Even though he did not find happiness with his family, he found a meaning in life, the existence of which he doubted on his return, thanks to a man who was miles away from him. Isn’t that the most valuable thing in life?
7 out of 10
For Jack Nicholson's soulful performance, I put a separate 10. Thank him for that.
The camera lazily crawls across the blue gray walls of a rectangular concrete box. In a few minutes, one human life will be written out of this perfect closed world. Warren Schmidt has long outgrown his position, has long served and laid down everything that was due to him, and therefore with an absolutely calm soul can close the door of the office for the last time. He will not be sad or miss colleagues and work. He has enough strength and courage not to turn around and not look at the friendly waving in the wake of colleagues. Warren Schmidt has been stingy with emotion all his career, so why change things today? After all, this is just another entry in the pension fund, just one fate, extinct with pathos on a solemn note, only one life is borrowed from others. Nothing can change the course of life. At least that's what Schmidt thinks.
But fate has other plans for Warren. For a modest reward, a mere twenty-two dollars, she will offer to change the world with a crooked grin. In the narrow sense - to help a sick child from an outlandish country, in a more global one - will throw a heap of simple forks, giving an illusory sense of freedom. Here and now you start your destiny with Schmidt, here and now you're in a van across half the United States, here and now you're making crazy plans for the next few days. An alien’s death as a reason to think, someone else’s betrayal as a violent catalyst, someone else’s wedding as the ultimate clear goal. This means that there is only a perfect ribbon of the roadway ahead, a series of faces of varying degrees of recognition and thought. Thinking about yourself and the world.
Gradually, episode after episode Alexander Payne shows all the facets of Schmidt. The emotions of a pensioner turn into colorful glasses of a kaleidoscope, from which the canvas of his life is woven. His feelings are simple and simple. The scales of the passions declared unconditional surrender to the unbearable ease of being. And only a chance to change everything with a single wave of his hand pushes Schmidt on a long journey down the street of despair, which, according to the law of logic, will lead straight into an existential dead end. There is no hope, no desire, all movement outside the window is just a fall in time and space. The fall is pointless and unforgiving. Click on the search for happiness. But the search engine gives another failure. Unnecessary pages are discarded, and at this point the main character is left alone with the emptiness that long ago settled in his soul. And all these rules, the daily rituals and ceremonies, the work from bell to bell is nothing more than an empty mechanical sound, an attempt to diversify the silence with something. That silence that treacherously exposes the soul and heart. And that’s exactly what Warren is afraid of. Even alone, he tries to hide in his pajamas. That would be safer.
A couple of years before Broken Flowers and long before Train to Darjeeling, Payne offers the viewer a drama with a bitter taste of comedy. Fake road story with a couple of unremarkable cities and one funny encounter. Analogies are too direct, and metaphors are uncasist. And only the central character firmly captures our attention. Jack Nicholson has decided to play all the people on earth. He is so unique in every episode. But it is this avalanche of emotions that makes him so close to everyone experiencing this tape. Miserable features, manifested through an impenetrable mask of despondency, eventually begin to play with all possible colors. A gray ode to loneliness blooms with a parable about the meaning of life.
"I'm too weak" is the diagnosis Warren makes. He didn’t have the strength to finish what he started. Insist on your own, change your life and those around you. But was he able to do it? After all, the chances and chances that fate threw him turned out to be fake. Simple glass, issued as diamonds of choice. There was never a choice. This is just a demonstration of opportunities that will not come true. It happens. Fate sometimes begins to tease in the most shameless way, building a chain of events in which nothing depends on you. No matter how hard you fight. And only twenty-two dollars could make a difference. Something that can cause sincere tears on the senile face. Which means it wasn't for nothing. And the road that brought Warren Schmidt home still led him to the right answers.
Sixty-sixth birthday completely changed the life of Warren Schmidt. Overnight, colleagues and important work became the past, and the home sofa and TV remote in the hands – the present. Here to think about possible travel without haste, relax and have fun, but the newly minted pensioner is not able to see joyful prospects. He sees only bloated ugly veins on tired legs, furrows of wrinkles on the face of a bored wife and reflects on the uselessness and meaninglessness of his own being. A man is overcome by anger and despondency. There is no one to share the emotions with except with an unfamiliar African boy waiting for help.
Did Alexander Payne laugh, filling the film with comedic components, flaunting an elderly man demonstratively deurenating past the toilet, despite the prohibitions of cleaning his wife, or catching the camera wandering look of him high at the rehearsals of the wedding of his only daughter, or perhaps he was amused by a chubby playful widow of not young years, who wanted to have fun with the main character in a hot tub? Famous for his caustic black humor, the director does not think to mock the unfortunate old man who lost his occupation, which absorbed the vast majority of his everyday life, or the woman in old age who did not lose her taste for life. As always, he is ironic at society, at you and me, hypocritically declaring that everything is just beginning on a well-deserved rest, in fact not recognizing the right to enjoy people over a certain age.
Did Alexander Payne weep, dramatizing: focusing on the mental anguish of a lost character, accustomed to finding an excuse for his inaction and inertia in external circumstances and the behavior of others, thrown out of the threshold of life by the younger and zealous along with things from the office? Known for ruthless autopsy of painful social abscesses, the director does not think to be upset about the natural course of events. Such is life, society squeezes all the juices out of people of working age, instilling in each of its members the desire to be stronger, higher, stronger and convincing that everything has what they deserve. To have what you want, so people believe, and plow, not sparing themselves. When the forces run out, they are sent to rest, exchanged for fresh naive and ambitious individuals, making this case with chic and fanfare, so that the unfortunate did not guess that, like waste material, removed as unnecessary. The American is saddened by the fate of a particular person with whom the viewer met extremely close, she and only she cause sympathy, because what to hide – we will all be there.
At first glance, it turned out to be a typical filmmaker. Habitually written script in co-authorship with immutable Jim Taylor, the usual telephone monologues, as a way to indirectly reflect the inner world of the characters, are replaced by revelations in letters, close in essence, and even the usual Omaha with its sights here as here. Similar in form to other works, in fact, the picture has one significant difference. Accustomed to concentrating on those who, for one reason or another, are temporarily on the sidelines of life (and we are not talking only about the picture of the same name that made him famous), and then returns to the main road, Alexander Payne this time turns the established idea of the world around us inside out, convincing us that not individual losers, but all humanity are on the sidelines, and we have nowhere to go back. False guidelines have led to a dead end, and the dubious truth - better late than never here, alas, does not work - years will not return. It remains to rely on young hearts who have not yet forgotten how to rejoice in every moment, in the hope that as long as they need us, we ourselves will not be completely derailed.
There are three types of deception: lies, brazen lies and statistics.
Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt led a quiet, measured life as an exemplary unit of society. And they had everything as human beings, and for that they were universally honored and respected. But now the appointed date has come, and both have an expiration date: Schmidt is sent to the dump of life, and his wife goes to the other world. Having not found anything to occupy his hands, head and mental vacuum, Schmidt embarks on the path of change to the promised land - to save a sportswoman-Komsomol and just a beautiful daughter from marriage with some bearded devil... Yeah, it's all nerve-related illnesses, and all the shit goes into your head from too much free time. It is only necessary to break the vicious circle of house-work-house-full-bowl and the brain takes from the cycle of life to the heights of self-knowledge. To be or not to be useful to society from one miserable unit of world statistics? Am I a shaking creature or do I have the right to become a smith of something happy? Did you pray for the night... Oh, no, that's another story.
Summing up the results of life and overestimating the results of their activities, anyone can drive into a cruel depressive state, what can we say about the socially maladapted cog-spoon system. Having plunged headlong into an existential crisis, Schmidt torments himself (and the viewer at the same time) with questions about the importance of man in the universe. All his dissatisfaction with the world and his own place in it, he pours, as it should, on paper, preferring to engage in spiritual striptease not in front of close friends-acquainted, but before the abstract African boy Ndugu, whose sponsor he signed up in an impulse to bring real benefit to the very world, which is so dissatisfied. Silent and outwardly apathetic pensioner turns out to be a lover of strong words and multi-letter philosophies, which is especially comical, given the age and place of residence of his addressee, because existential thoughts are visited mainly by representatives of cultures where basic survival needs have already been satisfied. You and I are in the middle of a payday.
Raising the theme of finding oneself, the tape invites the viewer to reflect at leisure on the meaning of life, the spiritual and moral appearance of one’s own personality and one’s place in history. Sliding along the path of capital truths, this joyless solo performance-confession allows you to look behind the curtain of a correctly lived, but so empty life. Two hours of screen time, Schmidt, an impersonal representative of the post-industrial consumer society, tries to get rid of the melancholy and return to normal life tone; find a reasonable balance between who he is and what he really is. Possessing all the external attributes of success, Schmidt for many years was hostage to the need to conform to the socially imposed value system. Once on the sidelines of life, he reveals only a ringing emptiness inside, a complete misunderstanding of the content and direction of his existence, as well as an acute need to be needed. In this crisis situation, all of Schmidt’s violent activity to influence the surrounding reality essentially grows out of the basic need for belonging and love, and only after satisfying it, he finally acquires the ability to feel himself a full-fledged person, part of the world, part of the universe.
And the light fades, and the sounds cease,
And the new torment is looking for hands...
Masquerade rules the world. In the routine of days, in a funnel of fake smiles and a dusty handshake, genuine personal ideals are often hidden behind a hedge of false collective compromises. Maintaining a family hearth, career climbing, the search for recognition of fellow travelers on a one-way flight make even a frowny misanthrope dissolve in the guise of a carefree layman on a holiday of life. It’s not just that a scoundrel is used to everything. And mainly in the Lyceum instinct of a biped without feathers. But the artist dominates the role until the role is taken hostage by the artist. As soon as the victim of the entrenched image intends to break out of its fetters or suddenly finds that his entire conscious existence half-heartedly portrays on the stage of the character of a tabloid play instead of the hero of an ancient legend, a crisis is inevitable.
Jack Nicholson at the final race saturated with records of creative distance tried on the role of a fallen spirit, widowed meek, wealthy white collar in retirement in the film version of the little-popular kiosk-novel “About Schmidt” by fiction lawyer Louis Begley. In the book version, Warren Schmidt, before going on a well-deserved near-death rest, trades in advocacy rather than insurance, lives in New York, not in a provincial half-millionaire, not only despises people as a species, but especially does not favor its Jewish representatives. Alexander Paine’s comedy drama meticulously cuts off the politically incorrect, overly protruding details of the literary prototype, gives its on-screen relative greater curiosity and at the same time less “humanity”. The reason for this, on the one hand, is the scripted powderiness, on the other hand, the choleric temperament of the lead actor, leaving no chance to suspect the average American from flesh and blood, to whom the creator addressed his film, in a eccentric Nikolson introvert.
Since the time of "Rhine Man" and "Forrest Gump" lives and lives under the wing of the Hollywood artel subgenre of easy-to-film, philosophical and everyday dramacoms about John Smith and Smith Johnson with atypical manias and phobias, about ordinary extraordinary with mental illness. Despite the dance of idols of large calibers, fountains of simple, but tearful soundtracks, flowerbeds of fascinating landscapes of star-striped cities and scales, it is difficult not to notice that numerous film stories about a quiet pool, where not everything is smooth, are often clothed in painstakingly washed, but rather worn, albeit not out of fashion, ideological second-hand. “Schmidt” is squeezed into this powerful bunch without difficulty and fits exactly between “Groundhog Day” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There.” Old man Warren, like Phil Connors and Ed Crane, with all the superficial farce, external puffiness and social status, is a classic Gogol-Chekhovsky little man with partial heart paralysis and a fossil of the right hemisphere of the brain. Akaki Bashmachkin or “subtle” Belikov with comic lotions and “informat” Joker’s charisma, which cannot be hidden, not hidden.
Hu from Mr. Schmidt? Why do they hide in the shell, what do they shun, what do they disdain? And most importantly, what is the source of the doomed, unceasing longing of the spirit? Weepy, short-sighted megera, who had been in wives for for forty years, adored useless restaurants, forbade once again to lift the toilet lid and in addition cheated with a friend. A stubborn fantasist in her daughters, who chose a late dummy and a loser as her spouse. Arrogant, familiar and boring in its predictability people in imaginary friends and former colleagues. And a damn clock hand that doesn't want to show the right time. And a flabby life, gray as a business suit of an insurer, and a wrinkled face in the mirror, and a fake philistine coziness. And an irresistible desire to relieve a small need from the need to pronounce pathetic, fake, insincere speeches. And a slimy fear of inconsistency, a prickly fear of rejection, often impersonated as decency and modesty. And the question stuck with the needle: what would have happened if not... In unfulfilled, naive dreams, he is undoubtedly the president of the corporation, or a pioneer traveler - a conqueror of the earthly expanses. However, having become such, he would have found a new reason to kill himself about the wasted gifts of fate, the transience of time, frailty and insufficiency of what he did.
The sandwich saga about the oppressed despair of the soul, as a way of life and a spiritual curse, inevitably hits the curtain in official, wordy moralization: vulcanizes with everyday wisdom about the essence of being on a sinful planet and unequivocally offers an outlet to the sullen unsociable and at the same time all his likes. To endure, to drink this cup to the bottom, preserving the fire of that faith and simple human. Not every Stepk to be Napoleon. Not to any dreamer, Magellan. Not every bore is a successful family man. And rather than delve into yourself and your loved ones, it is better to bow to the given. But why, tell me, why mark a sad traveler with the stigma of a sinner and burn his only shelter in the inquisition pyre - peace in melancholy and solitude in sad monologues with himself. After all, the crucified eccentric who once wept over humanity said: Blessed is the suffering one, for he will be consoled.
In old age, the tireless hero-rebel Jack Nicholson finally had a chance to find long-awaited peace. Warren Schmidt, an actuary at the international insurance company Woodmen of the World, Omaha, Nebraska, humbly follows the passage of time on the clock, which slowly brings him closer to his upcoming retirement. His place in the company will take a young upstart, and Schmidt will be left to himself for a long time. One day, he will go to the office to see if a new employee needs help, but it turns out that he does not need help. In the work that passed to him after Schmidt, there is nothing that he could not cope with himself.
So for the main character came the first day of the remaining life. A little earlier at the banquet, Warren’s old friend Ray Nichols (Len Kariu) said that a person can calmly retire when, looking back, he sees the results of his activities. But what did Warren Schmidt achieve? He's 66. Gradually, old age crept up - wrinkles appeared around the eyes, folds on the neck, hair on the ears, veins on the legs. He devoted much of his life to work. In his youth, Schmidt dreamed of starting his own company and making it become a corporation. However, everything did not go so smoothly: a good job in an insurance company and the family put an end to youthful ambitions.
He has been married to Helen (June Squibe) for 42 years, but his wife is still tormented by one question: Who is this old woman who lives in the same house with me? Everything she does annoys Schmidt: the way she pulls the keys out of her bag before she even gets to the car; the fact that she throws money away at her useless collections; or that she gets rid of good food just because the use date is overdue. Helen may have something to say about her old husband, but this film is not her confessional. The only joy for Schmidt is his grown-up daughter Jenny (Hope Davis). She lives and works in Denver and is going, unfortunately for her father, to marry a water mattress seller and a lover of quick enrichment schemes Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney).
Soon Helen suddenly dies of a brain hemorrhage, and Warren is left alone, alone with his thoughts. He desperately needs an interlocutor and finds one in the person of a 6-year-old boy from Tanzania, Ndugo Umbo, whom he learns about from a television ad for the organization Children's Aid, which is engaged in supporting African orphans. Along with sending $22 a month to the organization, Schmidt writes Ndugo long confessional letters, in which he sincerely tells him about his life story. Meanwhile, without a wife, the hero became completely helpless, unable to cook food or run the house. So for a while he leaves Omaha and goes on the Winnebago bus, a kind of house on wheels, to Denver. For 42 years, he lived with an unloved woman and does not want his daughter to marry a man who is not a couple. Before he dies, Warren wants to feel that he has changed something in the world.
Perhaps, in the performance of another actor, Warren Schmidt could turn out too tragic or too boring. However, Jack Nicholson managed to breathe life into his character. Of all the dramatic reincarnations in the actor’s long career, there is no more surprising than the transformation into a typical American layman, who, after devoting decades to actuarial calculations, was left to his fate in the advanced 66. It may be the least colorful, but certainly one of Nicholson’s most felt images. His approach here is to disavow his inherent mannerism, remove the "devil" charm and finally play the semitones. Warren Schmidt is the quintessence of all the characters Nicholson has played before. For this image, full of despair and pain, the Hollywood veteran was deservedly nominated for an Oscar.
The film "About Schmidt" is based on the novel of the same name by Louis Begley in 1996, although all they have in common is the name and title of the main character. In this regard, the script of Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne can be considered almost authorial. As a director, Payne approached the material very delicately and subtly. Reminiscent of the ribbons of Michelangelo Antonioni, the soundless preamble, in which one after another the deserted panoramas of the city are replaced, rhymes perfectly with the empty, joyless state of the protagonist. The viewer is given a sense of how Warren Schmidt’s inner world is projected onto the environment. Payne gives the most atmospheric shots of the film later, during Schmidt's nostalgic trip to places of the past, framed by the tender music of Rolf Kent. Images of a lonely bus, an endless road, natural greenery best convey a sense of abandonment, sadness and quiet despair.
Upon arrival in Denver, the hero meets those who may become his relatives in the future. Randall’s eccentric, disconnected family further reinforces Schmidt’s belief that Jenny is making a big mistake marrying this man. Among others, the overly mobile mother of Randall Robert (Katie Bates) stands out. Twice divorced, obsessed with sex, she brings comic notes to the narrative. Oscar-winning actress Bates, at least, did everything to make Robert memorable - as, for example, in the scene when her completely naked heroine sits down to relax in a jacuzzi and begins to flirt with him. During his life, Schmidt has seen a lot, but I wonder if he ever met such a woman?
However, at the heart of this film lies a tragedy that is evident in the final episodes. However, there is an even earlier scene that impeccably conveys the mood of the tape. In it, the protagonist dines with a married couple in their mobile house. Husband and wife give the impression of a close-knit, close-knit family - the kind of family that Schmidt secretly dreamed of. In a sincere conversation, a woman who barely knows Schmidt remarks: “Despite a light attitude to everything and a confident appearance, sadness lives inside your heart.” Alexander Payne managed to settle sadness in the hearts of the audience - for a man who lived his life in accordance with public regulations, as it should, but in the end was left with nothing.
One of the best paintings of 2002.
The mood was terrible, or rather it was not at all. A kind of zero, splint in half with hopelessness under the dreary sauce.
The film caught the hand by accident, the edge of the eye caught on Jack Nicholson in the credits.
The first few minutes of the film brought me back to life. It's hard to describe. When I watched the main character sit one on one with a wall clock that counts his last seconds before retirement, the thought flashed that life should not even go on.
I don’t know if another actor can say anything like that, without having the soundtrack, facial expressions, plastics behind him, say something to me, or to another complete cynic, but at that moment I was ready to look at Nicholson forever! I believed so much in the taste of the director and the actor that I just disconnected my head and through the bald eyes of Jack Nicholson moved inside his character.
Before that, Jack Nicholson only really hooked me on The Departed, even though I've watched almost all of his movies. How hard could not see the double bottom in his eyes, in the famous scene at the window “Flying over the nest of the cuckoo”, scored, writing off his own inferiority. But there is a direct hit in the soul.
What about Schmidt? A typical pensioner who doesn’t know what to do. Having just lost his wife, he tries to protect his daughter, as it seems to him, from a fatal mistake (marriage). The synopsis is bad. But in the main role, it is Jack Nicholson himself. Of the older generation of Hollywood, I love him the most. His face is a utter scoundrel sometimes so touching! Nicholson can be evil and cruel and vulnerable and charming. And his eyebrows are something!
And the film reminded "It's never better" all with the same Nicholson. Even Nicholson's heroes were similar. Still, "About Schmidt" seemed more melodramatic to me. Although he is more vital, he is still much worse than mentioned. Why is that? Because of the same melodrama. Very little humor. Especially for those actors. Sometimes it is not very interesting to watch, it is boring. And sometimes, to my surprise, even to tears.
Also about the cast, which is just great. Katie Bates. God, what a miracle! I love it. You don’t often see her in the lead role (she is always in episodes), but in vain. She's a great actress, in my opinion. Here she plays again in the episode, but again so brightly that eclipses almost everyone. She deserves the genius of Jack Nicholson, and so their duet took place. Also pleased Dermot Mulroney in the role of some weirdo. He played the son-in-law of the hero Nikolosn.
In the film there is also something from the Soviet "old robbers". Only he's not funny. Of course, in terms of the problems of the older generation, dramatic internal and external conflicts, the film is accurate and professional. But watching it is not very interesting. “It’s never better” is a movie for all time. Watch him better.
I watched this movie a few weeks ago, but from time to time I think about it, so I decided to write a review.
It’s not the most dynamic and far from exciting, it’s made in an atmosphere of... old age, I would say – when for a person everything is kind of slowed down, and more thinking than action. That is, it seems a little protracted, but in fact it is just the pace that coincides with the main character and his feelings - so it seemed to me, and therefore everything is quite organic. He is not very confident in himself and his actions, he is constantly thinking about what to do and how, because everything seemed to change overnight and life became different, and how to live in this new life is completely unclear.
And the theme in the film is very clear for everyone - especially for people of age: a person worked all his life, lived, you can say, work (it is not about self-sacrifice or a crazy career, but about identifying with work, as many people do), and when he suddenly retired - he looked around and began to think: and did I live this life, and what kind of relationship I have with the people around me, do I need anyone at all?
I thought it was a very lively movie – I think that’s how it works. And a certain awkwardness in communicating with incomprehensible and strangers, the feelings of the main character are not in their plate at a visit to future relatives - also absolutely life situation and all that, everything is quite as it can be in such a person in such a place. And the theme that sometimes a completely stranger can be needed more than his family – in my opinion, is also very relevant (by the way, this is one of the most touching moments in the film, in my opinion). I’m not going to talk about Jack Nicholson’s acting skills, everyone knows that.
I would recommend this film, first of all, to older people - there is a lot about old age in every sense of the word, and young people can simply not understand all the nuances and not "catch" the atmosphere of the film and the meaning inherent in it, because to understand some moments in the film you need some life experience. This is a film for those who like to think, I would say so.
8 out of 10