Jan. 03, 2003 - 9:30 pm

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About Schmidt (2002)

this is a really interesting movie. i had been wanting to see it since i first heard about it. you probably won't see any advertising for it (at least not for a while yet), but it's another one of those "important" end of the year films that you need to see if you want to stay up on this kind of thing I guess. it's been nominated for quite a few Golden Globes and you might see this one pop up in some of the major Oscar categories as well. Best Picture? it might get nominated. in any case, tonight was the local premier of this film and Colin and I sat in a packed house of mostly middle-aged-to-elderly folk.

first of all, i should point out that this movie is hilarious. my mouth and face got tired from laughing. but anyway, as the film title connotes, the film is centered around defining the life of the central character, Warren Schmidt. at the beginning of the film he is retiring from his job in the insurance business that he's been working at for decades. and that gives him a lot of free time. he starts doing some soul searching, mostly without commenting. for the most part, you as the audience do all of the deciding for him. we decide that his wife is old and disgusting, that his replacement at work is an insincere moron, that his daughter is marrying an idiot, and that his life is basically crap. then we spend of the rest of the film living vicariously through Warren as he tries to find a meaning to his new life as a sort of idiot loner, surrounded by people that he really doesn't have anything in common with and doesn't respect.

awesome work on this film by Jack Nicholson and the director, Alexander Payne. it's great material, and wonderfully delivered. as i said, expect more nominations to follow at the Oscars. i can't think of a time when i really felt so much in touch with the unspoken thoughts of a character, when the character was so unlike myself. i guess there's a little bit of Warren Schmidt in all of us though, and that's why we love him.

this film does do a great job of surprising you. no matter what you expect going in to see this movie, it's not going to be exactly like that. the only movie i can really compare it to is American Beauty (1999), just in the fact that it focuses around a man changing drastically later in his life, and then questioning many of the things he had previously accepted about the world. but it's still very different from that film in that it doesn't focus so much on other characters. it's not about very many people, and they are hardly ever effected by Warren's actions. it's purely descriptive of how he is effected by others, and the feelings that have long been brewing inside of him.

awesome film though, and i highly recommend everyone goes to see it. you will not be disappointed.