One scene in "About Schmidt" epitomizes this wonderfully sly satire of Americana. Warren, the recent widower and frustrated soon to be father-of-the-bride, sits and observes the groom's family chomping at food as if they were grazing at the trough. His predicament is that his daughter (Hope Davis) is eating just like them. Jack Nicholson, as Warren, is in practically every scene and his dramatic and comedic talent have never been better showcased (the tearful widower in a wonderful monologue atop his travel van, the struggling water bed sleeper who soon shows the effects of too much Percodan, and the seemingly vindictive father who turns 180 degrees in his wedding speech) . He doesn't work with glamorous women like in "The Witches of Eastwick" and he has a future son-in-law (Dermot Mulroney) that he graciously calls a nincompoop. No, there is his very old looking wife of 42 years, Helen, who makes him use the toilet seat to urine and a domineering soon to be mother-in-law, Roberta (Kathy Bates), who doesn't mind talking about her breast feeding, her orgasms, nor does she mind indulging in a nice hot tub session with Warren. The film deliberately keeps the straight-laced, broad shouldered Warren as a one dimensional, penny-pincher (the pine box was too cheap for his wife but not the upgrade) who is unable to deal with his retirement, his estranged daughter's wedding, nor self-doubts about what he has really accomplished. Much like the Coen brothers' film, "Fargo", this film makes us look at ourselves from the microscopic detail of sagging skin to the macroscopic view of a man's small place in his universe. It goes further by showing the terrible irony of a lonely, frustrated man whose only joy in life is confiding in a six year old boy he has never seen, in a faraway country where for the cost of $22 a month, he can finally say he has redemption.
Review of About Schmidt
