About Schmidt Back to Index

Imdb Rating: 7.3
Genre: Comedy
Directed: Louis Begley (novel), Alexander Payne (screenplay)
Country: USA
Year: 2002
Duration: 125 min

Media: Hot stuff
Recommended by zMin

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Actors: Jack Nicholson (as Warren Schmidt), Kathy Bates (as Roberta Hertzel), Hope Davis (as Jeannie Schmidt), Dermot Mulroney (as Randall Hertzel), June Squibb (as Helen Schmidt), Howard Hesseman (as Larry Hertzel), Harry Groener (as John Rusk), Connie Ray (as Vicki Rusk), Len Cariou (as Ray Nichols), Mark Venhuizen (as Duncan Hertzel), Cheryl Hamada (as Saundra), Phil Reeves (as Minister in Denver), Matt Winston (as Gary Nordin - Warren's Replacement), James M. Connor (as Randall's Best Man (as James Micheal Connor)), Jill Anderson (as Bridesmaid Reading St. Paul)

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Description: "Schmidt Happens"

Warren Schmidt is a man in his 60's. While trying to run his daughter's life, he realizes that he wasted his.

Comment: This film must be watched very carefully. If you're not paying enough attention to it, you would miss it (some did). It's in the frames, the atmosphere, the tiny details, the situations, the acting, everything. But it's not that obvious, unless you enter that world. Simple story? Sure. Life is simple. So is great art. All in all, "About Schmidt" is a really great film. Bitter humor, all-pervading lie, the infinite sadness of loneliness and failure, sincere egoism, everyday dullness, desperate and quiet hope - this is life, and in a non-blatant, nor melodramatic manner. But you're going to weep (and smile) at the ending (I did!). And one more question: is The Mulholland Man the greatest actor ever or not?

IMDB TRIVIA FOR ABOUT SCHMIDT (2002):
- The shot where Schmidt has dozed off while writing a letter in his bathtub is supposed to resemble the Jacques-Louis David painting "Death of Marat".
- Listed on a cinema marquee: (Left) Closed for repairs / (Right) Sideways (2004), the next movie directed by Alexander Payne.
- The church shown during the wedding rehearsal is in Boulder, Colorado, 20 miles northwest of Denver. The church can be seen on the right from Hwy. 36 just as you enter town.
- Scenes supposedly taking place at the University of Kansas were actually shot at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln.
- The production crew created a lifetime Endowed Scholarship for the real-life Ndugu, Abdallah Mtulu, through the real Childreach organization.
- The scene where Warren is swinging on the monkey bars was filmed at Steinhart Park, in Nebraska City, Nebraska.
- A scene that echoes Jack Nicholson's famous diner scene in Five Easy Pieces (1970) (his exchange with the waitress) was in an early cut of the movie in which Schmidt concedes in a cowardly fashion to the dictates of the waitress. Though the preview audience went wild over it, director Alexander Payne cut it from the final film because he felt that the scene was too much of a pointed reference to Nicholson's iconography and that something so referential took the audience out of the film.
- The movie theater that Warren drives by before he goes to the museum to look at the arrowheads is the Pioneer 3 in Nebraska City, Nebraska. The "museum" is a Civil War museum in the same town, just down the street.
- The Woodmen Life Assurance Co. is an actual firm. Jack Nicholson filmed his scenes at the company's offices and was given a plaque making him an honorary Woodmen member.
- The word "Ndugu" means "brother" literally in Kiswahili (same as Swahili). It is also used as slang for "friend" as in the US.
- The film's plot involves the children's charity "Childreach". Since 2002, the year of the film's release, the organization has referenced the film and featured its poster in its literature for prospective child sponsors.
- Nationally syndicated political cartoonist Jeff Koterba had a walk-on role in the film; however, it was cut from the final version.
- Once the filmmakers bought the rights to the Louis Begley novel, they kept the title and the main character but changed just about everything else. In the book, the main character lived in the Hamptons and his daughter was about to marry a lawyer.
- The person Warren listens to on his car stereo is famous conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
- Melissa Hanna, who plays "Dairy Queen Employee", is an actual employee of the Dairy Queen in Omaha, Nebraska where her scene was filmed.
- Other actors were also in the movie but cut before release. These were (with their character names): Tim Driscoll (Grocery Store Manager) and Jeff Morris (Farmer at Gas Station).
- Thomas Haden Church was originally considered for Randall.

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