Evangelicals Now
<< April 2003 >>

About Schmidt

The big questions
ABOUT SCHMIDT
Director Alexander Payne
Cert. 15

Some people anticipate retirement with glee, others with dread. For the eponymous hero of this film, retirement, from a long and apparently successful career in the insurance business, is the catalyst for a traumatic period of self-examination.

At his retirement do, Schmidt is lauded and congratulated for the contribution he has made to the company, but subsequent events make clear the shallow nature of such accolades, and Schmidt is gradually made to face up to the fact that his life has counted for nothing.

Heavy material for a night out at the pictures? Certainly. But when a consummate performer like Jack Nicholson is playing the part of Schmidt, a serious subject is handled with a light, self-mocking touch. This is an actor who can deliver a speech with the movement of an eyebrow. You, the audience, begin to see the foolishness of so much commonplace human behaviour through Schmidt's eyes - from the trite cliches at a funeral to the tensions at a family dinner. All the stupid things we say and do, especially when we take ourselves too seriously, are mercilessly recorded.

The only commentary is the voiceover of Schmidt's letters to an African child he has sponsored. 'Dear Ndugu', the letters begin and the audience enjoys the irony with which the writer describes the events of his unravelling life. Some scenes make you cringe with embarrassment, others, like the one with the waterbed, make you rock with laughter. There is some bad language and a brief nudity scene. After all the sorry, sometimes disastrous, twists and turns in the story, the ending is not without its glimmer of hope as Schmidt makes an important discovery about life.

This is a poignant, moving and funny film which could stimulate serious and helpful thought and discussion about the big questions. In the style of Ecclesiastes, About Schmidt clearly points up the vanity of life under the sun. That must be a good thing.

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