The big questions
ABOUT SCHMIDT Director Alexander Payne Cert. 15
Some people anticipate retirement with glee, others with dread. For the eponymous hero of this film, retirement, from a long and apparently successful career in the insurance business, is the catalyst for a traumatic period of self-examination.
At his retirement do, Schmidt is lauded and congratulated for the contribution he has made to the company, but subsequent events make clear the shallow nature of such accolades, and Schmidt is gradually made to face up to the fact that his life has counted for nothing.
Heavy material for a night out at the pictures? Certainly. But when a consummate performer like Jack Nicholson is playing the part of Schmidt, a serious subject is handled with a light, self-mocking touch. This is an actor who can deliver a speech with the movement of an eyebrow. You, the audience, begin to see the foolishness of so much commonplace human behaviour through Schmidt's eyes - from the trite cliches at a funeral to the tensions at a family dinner. All the stupid things we say and do, especially when we take ourselves too seriously, are mercilessly recorded.
