ABOUT ABOUT SCHMIDT: Perhaps they should have called the movie About Jack, because, really, that's the central dynamic of the movie.
Yes, there's the plot of the movie (Jack Nicholson plays a retired, widowed insurance executive from Omaha whose life has been a disappointment, and by the end of the movie he realizes this), but what this movie is really about is Nicholson's efforts to not be like Jack Nicholson, Movie Star. We see his Warren Schmidt suffering through things that would ordinarily make The Jack We Know And Love snarl, glare and give a pouty, sarcastic, do-you-know-who-you're-f*cking-with speech -- but instead, he is pitiable, morose, unsure of himself. As a viewer, you're caught up in this tremendous amount of tension: will Jack ever be Jack? Will he finally break free and tell people what he really thinks and wants? Will he even realize what that is?
It's a truly memorable, interesting performance. But what's bothersome about the movie was its tone: there's a level of contempt for these working-class Midwest people -- especially Schmidt's wife -- that's really off-putting. Just too many cheap laughs that the filmmakers were trying to score off some tacky, but basically decent people.
But, look: the performances are all great -- Hope Davis is engaging as Schmidt's daughter; Kathy Bates does a lot with a small part that required her to be braver than you might expect, and anytime you get to see ordinarily hunky Dermot Mulroney look like this, well, that's entertainment.
About Schmidt isn't a great movie, but it's a good and interesting one. It's certainly entertaining -- and to the extent the whole movie might just be a set-up for the money shot at the end, well, it's a hell of a money shot, and the emotions there are well-earned. Go see it.
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