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About
Schmidt Review: With no job, no wife and no family, Warren is desperate to find something meaningful in his thoroughly unimpressive life. He sets out on a journey of self-discovery, exploring his roots across Nebraska in the 35-foot motor home in which he had planned to drive around the country with his late wife. His ultimate destination is Denver, where he hopes to bridge the gulf between himself and his somewhat estranged daughter by arriving early to help with the wedding preparations. Unfortunately, he hates the groom-to-be, Randall (Dermot Mulroney - My Best Friend's Wedding), a profoundly mediocre, underachieving waterbed salesman. To make matter's worse, Warren is appalled by the free-spirited and boorish behaviour of his future in-laws (Bates and Howard Hesseman). Warren grows swiftly convinced that his new purpose in life is to stop his daughter's marriage. During this painful odyssey, he details his adventures and observations to an unexpected new friend, Ndugu Umbo, a six-year-old Tanzanian orphan whom Warren sponsors for $22 a month. From these long letters filled with a lifetime of things unsaid, Warren finally begins to glimpse himself and the life he has lived. Critique About Schmidt boasts a tour de force performance from the legendary Jack Nicholson, who leaves his trademark mannerisms behind to play the sombre character of Warren Schmidt. The screenplay, written by Jim Taylor and Director Alexander Payne, introduces us to Schmidt as he retires from lengthy employment in the life insurance industry. Looking back on his life, our 'hero' is anything but and feels as if he has wasted his life and achieved nothing of value. After his wife Helen (June Squibb) dies, Schmidt goes on a soul-searching road trip - his intended ultimate destination is his daughter's (Hope Davis) wedding, which he wants to see broken off due to disapproval of the groom. At the same time, Schmidt is writes to Ndugu Umbo, a young orphan in Tanzania that he sponsors for $22 a month. Ironically, it is only in these letters to a stranger who perhaps can't even read that he can really open himself up and express his feelings. The tale is very moving, with the combination of the plot, filmmaking style and Nicholson's acting creating an extremely sad, tragic mood. Everything about the actor's appearance and movement has been carefully modified to suit the character and break the audience's expectations. Even a sequence simply showing Schmidt walking for a few seconds from one motor home to another seems painfully depressing. Likewise, Schmidt's make-up retreats from the 'movie-star' look, leaving Nicholson to appear more tired and elderly than ever before. Director Alexander Payne must also be praised for sticking to such a distinctly realistic look and feel for his film. The cinematography is deliberately far from flashy, with standard camerawork drab colours being used, while the costume design is anything but colourful. Even the sound design is completely bog-standard and lacking in any trickery. The first few minutes of the film foreshadow the coming atmosphere perfectly, with an isolated Nicholson not even uttering a single word of dialogue. The screenplay was well-written and even injects some humour at regular intervals to reward the audience for sticking with such a brilliantly lifeless protagonist. Nicholson's own voiceover is often the source of the comedy, although Kathy Bates raises more than a few smiles of her own in a small role. Dermot Mulroney is also very funny as Schmidt's future son-in-law. However, the humour was never designed to ultimately compete with the sombre mood - the lack of a typical character turnaround or dramatic climax serves to only reinforce the depressing tone of the film. The engine that drives the tragedy for most people will, of course, be how alarmingly easy it could be to relate to Schmidt and his sad life. Overall, About Schmidt is a touching 'tragicom' that features a stunning performance from Jack Nicholson and brilliant direction by Alexander Payne. Those who can sit through two hours with such a lifeless, yet expertly-crafted lead character will be entertained and perhaps left with a message all too close to home. 8 out of 10 The Video Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the film is captured very nicely on this disc. Although the DVD contains the two hour film (with an additional DTS 5.1 sound option), along with 46 minutes of extras (in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1), the video transfer for the main feature does not suffer from compression artefacts. Sharpness is pretty good, while the deliberately muted colours are reproduced accurately here for the viewer. A light sprinkling of some grain is on display in the majority of scenes, but the majority of this should be chalked up to the film stock and not a problem with the DVD itself. In general, the image should be classified as free from print damage, although the very observant might note some extremely minor black specks at infrequent intervals. Meanwhile, the black levels are both solid and consistent, but could have perhaps been a touch better throughout. Some minor aliasing can also be seen in a handful of places but, overall, this is a fine transfer that is free of any major errors. 8 out of 10 The Audio The 5.1 sound design for this film was very restrained in order to match the quiet, almost lethargic nature of the principal character. This makes the inclusion of a large DTS 5.1 soundtrack both surprising and wasteful. The Dolby Digital 5.1 format more than suffices for a film like this and even the audiophiles may have preferred extra bonus material as opposed to this futile sonic upgrade. The dialogue (including all of Nicholson's voiceovers) are delivered with flawless clarity from the front-centre channel, while the score is delivered with decent channel separation from the surround speakers. As mentioned earlier, the sound design was intentionally unadventurous and, as a result, there is nothing else to be heard from behind save very gentle ambience. There is usually very little performance advantage to be noticed between the Dolby and DTS streams at the best of times - on this disc, however, those with DTS capabilities will not really benefit at all by selecting the technically superior track. Overall, the drab sound design crosses over to DVD very faithfully, intentionally ensuring that the listing experience is calm and inconspicuous. 7 out of 10 The Extras The presence of a DTS 5.1 soundtrack on this disc has limited the quantity of extras that could have been provided. In total, there are 46 minutes of extras to browse through after watching the film and a second disc should have really been included to satisfy fans. As a nice surprise, however, the limited extras are kept in anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1. Unfortunately, nobody recorded an audio commentary for this title, leaving the bonus material to instead commence with 30 minutes of deleted scenes with text introduction by Director Alexander Payne. This reel has been put together remarkably well, with Payne's forewords (to each individual scene and the entire group) being particularly insightful and personal. The director apologises for the 'raw' state of the sequences and explains why each individual one was cut. Payne also shares some additional details with the purchaser, such as how he would have modified certain scenes had they been rewoven into the film. The actual sequences themselves are nine in number and very interesting, offering a host of noteworthy moments for those who have just seen the film. Overall, this is a fantastic reel of deleted scenes, despite Payne's notes not being included as an audio commentary. The supplements continue with 5 'Woodmen Tower' sequences with text introduction by Director Alexander Payne, which add another 14 minutes of viewing to the disc. Payne had lots of footage shot around the Woodmen Tower for the opening credits and, as nothing more than an exercise, had his team come up with various versions of the sequence - all five different efforts have been bundled onto the DVD. Although both the written introduction and footage are mildly interesting, they do not deserve inclusion amongst such a sparse set of extras. These 14 minutes would have been better spent on 'the basics', such as some cast interviews. If a second disc had been provided, these sequences would have then become welcome additions to the bonus material listing. The final item on the disc is the theatrical trailer, which runs for the customary 2 minutes. The menus are static, but, to compensate, screen transitions are animated and the background music is in Dolby Digital 5.1. The DVD itself is housed in a standard black plastic amaray case with a chapter listing inside. Overall, this is a weak selection of extras despite each one of the limited items being of top-notch quality in terms of content and technical presentation. A second disc should have been provided to give the film's many fans a deeper look into the production process. 5 out of 10 RATINGS SUMMARY Movie
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