**** Official "ABOUT SCHMIDT" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[Edwin Pereyra]

Crawdaddy, that's okay.

~Edwin

 

[Eve T]

I enjoyed this movie a great deal. I went in not expecting to be that good though.
I was dragged in with a friend who is a big Jack fan.
The movie was very human to me. I've often felt just like Jack myself and could relate with his character somewhat.

The movie was also very comical to me as well.
I just felt like bursting out and laughing everytime Jack's character said "Dear Ndugu"
The letters to this boy were not letters you would expect any rational person to be writing to a six year old which is what made it comical to me.

Someone summed it up pretty well in this discussion when he said in the end it really didn't matter if this Ndugu boy was real or not, what mattered is that Jack's character believed him to be real and finally felt he had made a difference in someones life.

Good flick.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

good movie. i never thought i'd say this, but i saw very little of jack nicholson in the movie. now thats impressive to me. an actor that recognizable to not show many signs of himself in the character...try saying that about george clooney. anyway, i definitely noticed alexander payne's 'style' everywhere. although i think he is capable of something greater, it is certainly more mature than election (which i happen to love). my gf and i were easily the youngest in the crowd, at 24. i'm guessing next youngest was 45. i dont know how much i could relate to the characters personally, at my age. although i can certainly relate to warren's daughter, rowrr (but dont tell my girlfriend). the groom to be was hilarious. a nice guy, but fit into a few too many stereotypes for someone like schmidt to accept right away. i could have done without seeing kathy bates NAKED ASS. anyway, i enjoyed the movie, and jack turns in a great performance, topped off by the last scene.

CJ

 

[Tino]

Dear Ndugo
Hi. You don't know me but I recently saw the film About Schmidt, based on your foster father Warren. I thought Jack Nicholson did an adequate job portraying him, however I am in the minority when it comes to thinking it is an Oscar worthy performance (DD Lewis was much better imo). Were you bored by the letters he wrote to you about his life? I was. I hope you didn't fall asleep listening to the nun read his letters to you recounting his not that interesting life. It wasn't a bad film by any means, just an extremely disappointing one considering the talent involved. I did like the painting you drew for Warren. Can I get one too?
Well, hope you are feeling better and the weather in Tanzania is cooling down.
Stay Well Ndugo
Tino

 

[Holadem]

My favorite line has got to be "... you probably want to cash this check and get something to eat..."
The movie was worth my $9.00, but I certainly don't believe it's should be a best picture contender - I was very much surprised by it's GG nomination.
Jack's performance was terrific however.
I agree with CD in disagree with Edwin . Where does one draw the line between multiple layers and unevenness? Perhaps some feel that calling that charity in the first place was totally out of character with Schmidt? IMO, that call was prompted by an already strong unconscious yearning for a new begining.
--
Holadem

 

[Dave Gorman]

My favorite line has got to be "... you probably want to cash this check and get something to eat..."

Definitely! My SO & I both got a huge kick out of that line! But I think we were the only 2 in the theater that laughed at it.

All in all I'd give it a 5 out of 10. It had some great lines, but I never really felt interested in the movie. As I described it to a friend, it felt like a loosely connected collection of non-events that didn't mean anything to me.

I didn't hate it, but I'm glad I saw it with free passes!

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

I wasn't wowed the first time but enjoyed it quite a bit. The second time, though, revealed a richer film than I had thought existed. All of the characters are drawn more carefully than Payne and Taylor have been given credit for.

For instance, it may seem that on the surface Randall is a buffoon to be mocked and laughed at, but upon a second viewing, I saw him in a completely different light. What he may say or do may strike us as inappropriate or excessively ingratiating, but I think he is trying to be sensitive and helpful. He and Warren aren't on the same wavelength, but if Warren would open his eyes, he'd see that Randall really loves his daughter and is good for her. (I wasn't convinced of that after the first time, but I realized that although we see him as a goofball, he has a good heart and does what is best for her.)

The relationships feel real. When Warren and his daughter argue about how he treated his wife, like making her pay for half of the Adventurer, you can see that the frustration an adult child can have with a parent.

I'd be interested to compare Warren with Matthew Broderick's character in Election. Both bring about their downfalls because they want to control everything.

 

[Richard Kim]

I noticed several people comparing this film to American Beauty. I was more reminded of The Man Who Wasn't There. Both protagonists appear to be drifting in a world in which they don't seem to belong. And Warren inquiring about Randall's pyramid scheme was similar to Ed Crane getting into dry cleaning.

I'd be interested to compare Warren with Matthew Broderick's character in Election. Both bring about their downfalls because they want to control everything.

Actually, I see similarites between Randall and Chris Klein's character in Election; they're both flawed, supposedly unlikeable characters who are actually decent people.

 

[Mark Zimmer]

I thought it was incredibly bleak and grim. The Ndugu letters lightened it a little, but it left me with the same reaction as when I saw Kids: I never, ever want to see this picture again.

 

[Rich Malloy]

My favorite line has got to be "... you probably want to cash this check and get something to eat..."

Neither myself nor anyone else in the audience could stop laughing after that line. Not since the opening sequence of "There's Something About Mary" have I been in an audience that was rolling that hard with laughter - I think we missed the next two minutes of dialog!

And I don't think any of us will ever fail to see "Jack" in that face, but on the other hand, I think Nicholson did a good job of submerging his public identity. Impossible to completely dismiss the "Jackness" of him, but I don't think it sank the role. The pinched expression and the way he carried himself as Warren Schmidt were utterly unjacklike and very midwestern.

And I was also fearing a bit of that "American Beauty"/Todd Solondz-type freak show featuring the flyover country and the rubes who inhabit it. I detected a few whiffs of that, but for the most part the characters were allowed their complexity, their good and bad qualities, and never made to pay for being, simply, who they are: midwestern, middle-class, and a tad too repressed, or free-spirited bordering on unbearably flakey. With only a few exceptions in the secondary roles, the characters were allowed their humanity.

And I love the letters written by Warren to Ndugu, and the way they captured his worldview as he enters this final phase of life in a way he never imagined: alone. I'd just finished reading Franzen's "The Corrections" (a book about a Midwestern couple and their children who've since fled to the East), and there's a certain resigned sadness in growing old that I think is captured very well in both stories (though the corresponding character in "The Corrections" is losing himself to dementia/Alzheimer's). What can I say? I was very moved by the character of Warren Schmidt and glad I saw the film.

 

[Sam E. Torres]

just saw this for the second time...what do you guys think of the cow motif? my friend has a theory that the cows are on their way to being slaughtered, sort of like schmidt is on his way to misery? any other theories?

 

[Adam_S]

what do you guys think of the cow motif? my friend has a theory that the cows are on their way to being slaughtered, sort of like schmidt is on his way to misery?

d'oh! I don't think it's meant to be symbolic or a motif. I think it means that Alexander Payne has been on a helluva lot of car trips in the midwest in his life. I don't think you get it (being from Florida), but driving through the midwest, between cities, its all farms (so you people have something to eat), and lots and lots and lots of cows. Cows are extremely common, they're everywhere, everytime I saw the cows or a shot of the highways/roads I had to smile because they were shooting it in the midwest, and captured a tiny slice of the midwest. My favorite shot in the movie is the shot of the cows in the trailer next to schmidt's car. I myself have ridden many times in the midwest and looked at the same trailers, seen the same glimpses of the same cows many times. In that respect Pyane succeeded in giving the film a realist feel, a sort of capturing of the mundane, uninteresting and meaningless. I see About Schmidt as attempting to be a realist film. and there are things I like quite a lot about the film, but there's a feeling of distaste about it that I can't shake. I can't get rid of the feeling that the writers believe they are much better than any of the characters in this film--that isn't this a sad story about how awful midwesterners are as people.
And a key problem is how on earth does the worldést greatest introvert be as successful as he was supposed to be? you don't get to be vice-president of a company without some people skills, which apparently Warren lacks totally.
Adam

 

[Robert Crawford]

You will be surprised as to how many people rose up to higher management with little or none people skills. In today's working environment such promotions might not be as prominent due to the touchy and feeling corporate world we live in today.




Crawdaddy

 

[Patrick Sun]

Yeah, back then, it was more about company loyalty and hard work/service time that got you promoted (people skills be damned), and was a time of a less arbitrary form of promotion like it is today (w/r/t how well you kiss butt, and how well you're apt to allow your butt to be kissed once you get into management).

 

[Ryan Peter]

I think it means that Alexander Payne has been on a helluva lot of car trips in the midwest in his life.

Being that he's from Nebraska, he was probably in a car trip in the midwest every day of his life until whenever he moved out.

 

[Sam E. Torres]

I think it means that Alexander Payne has been on a helluva lot of car trips in the midwest in his life.

the cows weren't only around in the road trip scenes. at his wife's funeral, the cow "cage" was right next to the ceremony. in the very beginning, at the retirement "party," they show the pictures of the cows with schmidt on the walls. they even closed up on the cow's face. i don't think cows are in the movie just because they are popular in the midwest...there wouldn't be nearly as much emphasis on them if they were just part of the setting and nothing more...

 

[Ryan Peter]

I did notice the cows Sam, and was thinking along the same lines as your friend. There's probably some existential meaning/metaphors to their appearance.