About Schmidt
The retirement of one Warren Schmidt brought up one single question: what the heck had he done for the past 67 years? And from all the thinking and soul-searching he did, really nothing of interest. Basically forced out of the insurance company he’s worked for all his life and his wife dead shortly after, Warren Schmidt, remarkably played by Jack Nicholson in one of his best performances, decides to try to start over and accomplish something memorable in his life and make himself happy. He starts out by traveling to Colorado to convince his daughter that she is marrying the wrong man.

I was listening to Alexander Payne, writer and director of this and Election (which, for some odd reason, I saw a preview for before watching About Schmidt), and he said that everyone mentions the great performance by Nicholson but nary one word about the movie. Don’t worry, the movie’s good, but Nicholson stands out, since after all, it’s about him. With one look at a clock, we know exactly what’s wrong with him and his life. His character pours his soul out through letters to a Tanzanian boy and you just have to feel for him, not just for the content, but also for the emotion he puts into his narration.

The supporting cast doesn’t seem to change too much in terms of character through the course of the movie. In fact, nothing changes at all and it got a little tiring seeing them strike that one note they’ve been assigned to do, some for full comedic effect. But without any change, Warren can’t and won't fulfill what he set out to do. Instead, Warren just needed a sunnier picture on life to be happy. 3.5 stars