ABOUT SCHMIDT (R) ****

Directed by Alexander Payne. 124 minutes.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Dermot Mulroney, and Hope Davis. Released by New Line Cinema.

“You are a sad, sad man,” a complete stranger tells Warren R. Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) as he sits feeling melancholy, his head perched on her shoulder. From the first moment that we meet him, it is obvious to see that Schmidt is sad about something. Sad as he stares at the clock on the wall, watching his last few moments as an actuary for Woodmen Inc. pass by. Sad as the guest of honor at a banquet commemorating his years at his workplace, where the kindest thing his long time friends can think of to say is that “he did his job.” Sad as he sits staring at the television, watching advertisements for Childreach, a program that helps to feed and clothe starving children in poor countries, such as Tanzania. But why?

Perhaps, it is because, at the retirement age of 66, Warren Schmidt finds himself asking questions such as “what have I done that has made life better for someone else? What difference have I made?” Without a career to occupy his time, the realization of moments lost and a life wasted begins to set in for Schmidt. Though he loves her, extended time spent with his wife, Helen, typically results in annoyance, especially when she tells him not to “dilly dally.” His daughter, Jeanie (Hope Davis), whom he rarely sees, is on the verge of what Schmidt would call a terrible mistake- marrying Randall (Dermot Mulroney), a waterbed-selling nincompoop who attempts to assuage Schmidt into a pyramid scheme money-earning venture. The only source of confidence and release that he can find is in the letters he writes to his adopted Tanzanian child, whom he addresses “Dear Ndugu” in voice-over, which results in increasingly inspired hilarity every time he begins writing.

No sooner than he has celebrated his retirement and bought an enormous Winnebago that he plans to travel in with Helen around the country, tragedy strikes- his wife passes away. Upon cleaning out her closet, he finds love letters addressed to her from his best friend and decides to get a grip on his sad existence. Against his daughter’s wishes, Schmidt packs up the Winnebago and leaves his town of Omaha, Nebraska behind in order to meet his new in-laws in Denver. Along the way, he takes a short soul-searching adventure to his old hometown, as well as his Alma matter to relive the few good moments in his life. These moments are both sad, especially as he gazes lovingly at his own college picture on the wall of his old fraternity, and funny when he realizes that his childhood home has been turned into a discount tire store.

Upon arriving in Denver, Schmidt does not find the happiness he is looking for. Randall’s family is insane. His mother, played by a truly wonderful and hilarious Kathy Bates, is a randy, but warm woman who has obviously not grown out of the days of free love and his father, divorced from Bates’ Roberta and remarried to an “artistic” Asian woman, is melodramatic and given to overblown speeches. Schmidt must decide whether to do what he believes to be the right thing, which is convince Jeanie that she should not marry into this clan of wackos, or let her live her own life. His tale jumps back and forth, quite successfully I must mention, from peculiar and outrageous humor, to melancholy and bittersweet sadness. About Schmidt, itself seemingly modeled after Ingmar Bergman’s masterpiece Wild Strawberries, is a rare film that is both wise and emotionally engaging. Hollywood movies often try to manipulate their audiences with sappy emotion and cop-out endings. Schmidt is a film that deserves every tear shed and every bit of emotion invested in it, ending with one of the most effective shots in recent film.

I gotta say, I love Jack Nicholson. I mean, who doesn’t? One of the finest actors of his generation, as well as any generation, for that matter, Nicholson is a brilliant performer, whose roles, similarly to other wonderful actors such as Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, and Al Pacino, often reflect a bit of the actor’s own personality. In other words, whenever Nicholson gives a great performance, there is still a bit of Jack invested into the character. Not in About Schmidt. Nicholson disappears into the role, giving one of his most humane performances, sculpting a character that is truly impossible not to empathize with. Despite his flaws with his daughters, his sometime snobbish attitude towards Randall’s family, though no one can blame him for his skepticism about his daughter’s happiness amongst that gang of lunatics, Schmidt is a character to love. He is a man who realizes that a change must be made in his life, though it is almost impossible to bring about. He is a lonely man, but not alone for it is not difficult to see a little bit of all of us in Schmidt. His despair of failing in life, his inability to really connect with others or himself, his realization that he has focused on all the wrong things over the years give him that curse and blessing that everyone shares- being human.

Director Alexander Payne is a terrific writer and, up until Schmidt, a top of the class director of biting social satire comedies, such as the sharp abortion comedy, Citizen Ruth, and Election, one of the most intelligent and hilarious films ever made about teenagers, politics, success, and failure. With About Schmidt he has moved a step further, crafting a more mature and, while still rife with parody and sharp humor, sincerely moving film. There appears to be no doubt that he will be amongst the leaders of the New School of American directors, a group that includes Spike Jonze, Kenneth Lonergan, Darren Aronofsky, Paul Thomas Anderson, Neil Labute, Todd Solondz, Kimberly Pierce, Wes Anderson, Marc Forster, M. Night Shyamalan, and Sam Mendes.

Above all, Schmidt is a testament to the men of the Eisenhower generation, giving his all to his job for thirty some odd years, only to find that he has a wife that never really knew him and a daughter that resents him. His late in life epiphany to change his life, along with the lives of others, is a moving, if not slightly naïve, idea and we want him to find what he is looking for, but maybe that is because we all secretly connect to Schmidt, a man who cannot connect to others, and, in actuality, hope that we ourselves find the answers, fearful of ending up in the same lonely boat as Warren Schmidt. Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, About Schmidt is a real triumph both for Payne as a director who has found his niche and Jack Nicholson, an actor so terrific that it would seem impossible that he could ever outdo himself and then does.