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About Schmidt
(Reviewed December 5, 2002)
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Nice low-key start, absolutely awful middle-to-near-the-end, and a killer finale that is one of the best "movie moments" of 2002. Talk about a mixed bag!
Jack Nicholson plays a retired insurance man who takes a road trip to be with his daughter before she weds a mullet-headed moron. The script and Nicholson are refreshingly low-key at the start, making for a good character study that is sentimental but without too much sap. When Nicholson meets his future son-in-law's family, however, things go straight to sitcomishly-eccentric-character hell. As soon as Kathy Bates opens the front door of her house, you'll wish you could tune out for the next half-hour or so.
It's the last two minutes of this movie that could get Nicholson an Oscar nomination, in a scene that is so perfectly realized it is a work of art.
Not a great movie, and nowhere near as good as director/co-writer Alexander Payne's great "Election" of a few years back, but worth a look.
Back Row Grade: C
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