About Schmidt

Dear Ndugu, A little while ago I saw a great film. It was about a lonely, sad, old man named Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) and his life after his retirement and the death of his wife.

Now, Warren had lived a fairly full life. He had a beautiful and successful daughter named Jeannie (Hope Davis) who was about to marry a, well, let’s just call him a schlub. His name is Randall (Dermot Mulroney). Warren was well-liked by his co-workers even if they didn’t know him very well. His friends were good and long-term even if they had certain secrets that they weren’t very willing to share. Actually we never get to know very much about his relationships with most people, but that’s ok. He doesn’t seem to know them, either. I guess that’s kind of the point.

But Warren still saw his life as a failure. He hadn’t been able to do everything that he wanted to do with his life. He had to stop and do what needed to be done to keep his wife and daughter happy.

And we all know what that can do to a man, Ndugu. It can beat him down.

The turning point in his life was when his wife died. Yes, he was saddened and very depressed for a while, but then he realized that he could do anything he wanted to do. And what he wanted to do was to talk his daughter out of her soon to be mistake of a marriage. So he got in his camper (bought for his wife) and started a trek for Denver. Along the way he met some interesting people and learned a little bit about himself and what his life has meant.

Which is to say, not much.

Ndugu, when I went into this movie I was feeling a little bit like Warren. I’m still young, so it hasn’t weighed on me quite as much, but in this day and age a lot of young people in America are feeling this way. We can’t see where our lives are going or what they will be worth. We have families and friends who are mostly interested in themselves and a government that doesn’t care much about us, either. So where do we turn? The movies.

This movie made me want to do something with my life just so I wouldn’t turn into Warren Schmidt.

Now, you may have seen Mr. Nicholson in many movies before, Ndugu. But I guarantee you haven’t seen him like this. Jack is getting old. He may not admit it very often. He usually chooses movies that consciously avoid the fact of his age like As Good As It Gets or his more recent Anger Management. This time out, though, he chose to face facts. For the first time he looks and acts his age. He is quiet and reserved. He reminded me of my grandfather. This is one of Jack’s best performances, Ndugu, and I think you should see it just for that.

But everyone else is equally as good. Mr. Mulroney is sweetly stupid and a good-hearted slob. His weird hair is hilarious as is his semi-feminine, good ol’ boy demeanor. Kathy Bates, who plays his mother, is excellent as a hippy who never quite grew up. She is over-sexed and under-loved. Her relationship with her ex-husband (perfectly played to hammy proportions by Howard Hessman, who doesn’t get nearly enough work anymore) is weirdly antagonistic and overbearing.

The only real weak link here, Ndugu, is Hope Davis. She is a little shrill and too bitchy. I’m not sure if we were supposed to dislike her as much as we did. Not up to her usual standards, I’m afraid.

Alexander Payne, the director, has shown us the underbelly of another part of our own lives. He knows how to make a dark, dark comedy into something more. His Election could have just been a complete farce with no heart. But instead he turned it into a dark, dark film with an underlying heart. Sure it was hard to see, but it was there. There were no true good guys, but we genuinely liked everyone in it.

The same goes here. Warren Schmidt is not necessarily a good man. Remember, Ndugu, he wants to break up his daughter’s wedding. He thinks he’s doing it for her own good, but he really just wants her to himself. He doesn’t want her to grow up just yet. And, while we see that, we also see Warren as a tragic figure. He loses everything to gain himself. That may be a total cliché in this day and age, but it works in this film.

As the great philosopher Mark Knopfler once said, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” In this film, Warren Schmidt is both. He feels like a complete failure, but was he really?

Keep this in mind as you grow into your life, Ndugu. Hopefully it will guide you to a better and more fulfilling one.

Your friend,

Profwagstaff