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About Schmidt: Warren R. Schmidt has retired, and he’s at a loss.
He’s been married to the same woman for 42 years and has been working in the same job for as long as he can remember. When the time comes to finally give up the 9-5, his plans stretch only to buying a 35-foot Winnebago and visiting their daughter for her impending wedding.
Then when a life-changing event occurs and he responds to a TV advert to sponsor a child in a Third World country and so writes regularly to six-year-old Ndugu, which forms the basis for the fact that the movie has a narration from Jack Nicholson as the main character.
When I started watching this and got about 45 minutes into it, it seemed like it was trying to be the dour part of One Foot in the Grave, with Schmidt handing over his job to a young upstart played by Matt Winston, son of special effects maestro Stan Winston, and most recently seen in Six Feet Under as choirister Terry; he sees that all his old work files have simply been thrown out with the trash and he sinks into a feeling of worthlessnness.
About Schmidt is a nice unassuming little drama that turns into a road movie without much bite to it, but one that makes for a mildly-diverting two hours. However, after the first hour, while I don’t mind decent films that take a while to set the scene, I was expecting it to pick up past that point but it didn’t really – it just went on in the same vein. It’s like Nicholson has the capacity to turn Schmidt into a Victor Meldrew-type character but it’s a road not taken.
Schmidt visits old haunts including his college, but it proves that as we get older and relay past experiences to new people, the only ones interested in those tales are ourselves. What we also learn from the film is about trying to right the wrongs in one’s life and wondering how much of a difference, if any, you’ve made to other people’s lives.
Over two hours of time, it could’ve still picked up the pace from time to time, and not shown Kathy Bates first topless and then naked. As for the cast, Nicholson is perfectly fine in his role but it’s one he could sleepwalk through, Bates plays the same low-key role she’s played in scores of films and dramas and the rest fill their own shoes without much to get excited about.
The film is in the presented in the original cinema ratio of 1.85:1 and is anamorphic, but any motion a bit hazy sometimes. This isn’t a major problem but for such a recent film the transfer could’ve been a lot better. No problems with the sound, but such a drama doesn’t get the chance to shine in the sonic department so the DTS track is largely wasted.
There’s few extras which are as follows:
- Deleted Scenes (22½ mins): Nine scenes, all of which are pretty inconsequential to the overall movie given how they just reinforce a point sometimes. They’re okay to watch as extras but they’re not missed from the final cut. All are in anamorphic 1.85:1.
- The Woodmen Tower sequences (11½ mins): Five short films, in letterbox 1.85:1, meant to be like corporate films showing off the Woodmen building and its surroundings, but it’s little more than alternate opening sequences that you won’t watch again.
- Trailer : One, in 16:9 anamorphic, just over 2 minutes long. I prefer to watch these afterwards in case they give something away, but this one’s pretty good for not doing that.
There are subtitles in English only, a decent 26 chapters to the movie and a simple main menu with a small amount of music rotated endlessly.
|
FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 7 6 2 |
| OVERALL | 5 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 120 minutes
Studio: Entertainment in Video
Cat.no: EDV 9154
Year: 2002
Released: August 11th 2003
Region(s): 2, PAL
Chapters: 26
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1
16:9-Enhanced: Yes
Macrovision: No
Disc Format: DVD 9
Director: Alexander Payne
Producer: Michael Besman and Harry Gittes
Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor
Music: Rolfe Kent
Cast:
Warren R Schmidt: Jack Nicholson
Jeannie Schmidt: Hope Davis
Randall Hertzel: Dermot Mulroney
Roberta Hertzel: Kathy Bates
Helen Schmidt: June Squibb
Larry Hertzel: Howard Hesseman
John Rusk: Harry Groener
Vicki Rusk: Connie Ray
Ray Nichols: Len Cariou
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.