About Schmidt (DVD)

This is Jack Nicholson’s movie. And yet it’s nothing like a Jack Nicholson movie, in many respects. OK, it’s a cross between "As good as it gets" (which Nicholson was in) and "American Beauty" (which he wasn’t in). He plays Warren Schmidt, a stick in the mud, who doesn’t really like his wife, to whom he’s been married 42 years (though she dotes on him) – he’s married to his job, then finds out when he retires, that his firm, an insurance company, didn’t rally respect him anyway. Kick in the teeth, and then there’s having to put up with your wife 24/7. His wife Helen is ...

Films starring Jack Nicholson are a rare commodity of recent years, his most recent appearance being in 2001's The Pledge. So it's a welcome sight to see him back in dark comedy About Schmidt. Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, a 60 something executive just starting his retirement after many years working for an insurance company. He's dissatisfied with life; hates the young hotshot who took his job; and is constantly irritated by his wife Jeannie's little habits. After her sudden death, he sets out on a journey to stop his daughter (Hope Davis) entering into a union with a waterbed salesman (Dermot Mulroney) who Schmidt doesn't think is worthy ...

Comedy is a broad word; it doesn?t mean one thing in particular. A comedy film can be something that is broad and blatant. It can also be a film that is amusing, funny but always on a conscious level. About Schmidt is a comedy drama that fits into this category; it?s a film that?s funny because it?s true. However it?s also more than that. Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) has hit retirement age, he is destined to spend his days not really knowing what to do. He will spend it with his wife of 42 years and together they plan to travel in a recently purchased motor home. However this new found freedom that Warren encounters is strange, he is forced to realize that ...