A quietly ingenious, wonderfully melodious, melancholy comedy, About Schmidt stars Jack Nicholson in a natural and nuanced Oscar-nominated performance as a former insurance actuary from Omaha, Nebraska, whose life has come unraveled in the double-whammy wake of his recent retirement and sudden widowhood. Trying to cope with a glut of old emotional baggage, Schmidt sets out on a soul-searching trip--the eventual destination of which is his daughter's unfortunate wedding to a mullet-headed waterbed salesman--in the monstrous, 35-foot deluxe motor home he'd reluctantly purchased at his loving late wife's behest. The whole journey (both literal and metaphysical) is documented in hilariously frank, compulsively long letters he writes to "little Ndugu," a Tanzanian orphan he sponsors for $22 a month through a charity he saw advertised during a depressed bout with late-night TV addiction. For the first time in probably 20 years, Nicholson as we know him vanishes into his performance in this droll, yet heartfelt, uniquely American magnum opus of sorrow-induced psychological self-examination, as profoundly affecting as it is sweetly, surprisingly simple. Highly recommended. [Note: DVD extras include 30 minutes worth of deleted scenes (with text intro by director Alexander Payne), five “Woodmen Tower Sequences” with text intro (14 minutes), and trailers. Bottom line: A disappointingly skimpy extras package for one of 2002's best films.] (R. Blackwelder)
About Schmidt
New Line, 124 min., R, VHS: $22.99, DVD: $27.98, Jun. 3 Volume 18, Issue 3
About Schmidt
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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