rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2002
Directed by Alexander Payne; produced by Michael Besman, Harry Gittes; screenplay by Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Starring Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding Jr., Skeet Ulrich, Shirley Knight
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'About Schmidt' tells the story of a retired man named Warren Schmidt (Jack
Nicholson) who knows almost nothing about the world, has no plans what to do
with his life now that he is retired, who loses his wife after 42 years of
marriage and who wants to stop his daughter Jeanny (Hope Davis) from
marrying a man not good enough for her. To stop this wedding he must go from
Omaha, Nebraska to Denver and his vehicle is a Winnebago Adventurer. Jeanny
is marrying a guy naked Randall (Dermot Mulroney) and his mother is Roberta
(Kathy Bates).
It is great to see Nicholson in a role like this, so different from his
others. Warren is a guy who is very limited, doesn't know to do anything
himself. With probably almost every other actor this would have been a
boring movie since the character is in every scene. Nicholson makes the
character watchable for the entire time, as he does with most of his characters.
Other performances are very good too. Dermot Mulroney as the strange Randall
gives us some comedy moments, as well as the other members of his strange
family. Kathy Bates gives one of her finest performances, she is great here.
With a beautiful cinematography and a fine direction from Alexander Payne,
known from 'Election' with Reese Witherspoon, this is good movie. May be it
is a little too slow in the middle but the last 30 minutes or so make up for
that.