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Reviews - About Schmidt |
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Kathy Bates is totally nude in About
Schmidt. That is about all you need to know about this movie. You can
take that small piece of information and from there, decide whether or
not you want to see this movie. It is definitely one of the most
shocking moments of cinema that I experienced in a movie in the last
three years. I found myself losing concentration during the movie,
starting to think about Christmas shopping, work and a few other things
and the next thing I knew, Kathy Bates was nude on the screen in front
of my face and I never took my eyes off the screen for even a split
second for the rest of the movie. It almost happened too fast. And for
days after, the picture of her getting into that hot tub naked was
engraved in my mind. Everything I did - grocery shopping, driving to
work, watching TV - none of it could take her off of my mind. It became
an obsession. I seriously considered getting professional help. For all
the naked women I have seen in my life, why was it her that I could not
get off my mind? Why?
All joking aside, About Schmidt is an outstanding movie. It is the story
of a soon-to-be retired insurance salesman, Warren Schmidt (Jack
Nicholson), who's life, on the outside, seems to be all red roses and
white tulips, but on the inside, it is his own personal nightmare. We
learn about much of Schmidt's unhappiness through the letters he writes
to a six-year old Tanzanian child named Ndugu, who Schmidt has decided
to sponsor. In these letters, Schmidt details his life to his young
foster child. He has a loving wife to whom he has been married for
probably over 40 years but in his mind, she has been the devil in
disguise (she makes him sit down to pee). He has a job that he has
managed to hold onto for almost his whole life as a successful insurance
salesman/executive but deep down he wishes he could have been a
financial guru featured in Fortune 500. And he has a beautiful daughter
who is about to get married but his daughter is resentful of her
father's lack of compassion he gave her and her mother and Warren is
disappointed that her daughter is marrying a waterbed salesman (Dermot
Mulroney) with the mullet of all mullets in the history of mankind. I
didn't even realize that this character was played by Mulroney until the
final credits were rolling. That's how good that mullet was!
About Schmidt is not a movie for everyone. It is slow-moving in some
parts and deals with adult issues that young people may not understand
or may not care to understand. There are some situations in which Jack
finds himself that are absolutely hilarious (refer to Kathy Bates nude)
and other scenes that are so uncomfortable, you almost feel like
crawling under your chair in the theatre out of embarrassment for Jack.
But in my humble opinion, this is Jack Nicholson's best piece of work in
the last decade. I can't think of any other actor that would have played
this role with such precision and such perfection as Jack. He hit the
nail on the head for this one. This performance has Oscar written all
over it. The entire movie was just so real. There are probably a million
people who have lived the life of Warren Schmidt and that is what makes
this movie so special.
About Schmidt will leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth. It is
not a happy movie. It is reality. But if it makes one person realize
that working 20 hours a day, ignoring your children and your wife and
being miserable is not the way to live life, well, then I guess it might
have done its job.
 
- 9/10
Brendan Cullin - Senior
Editor
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