About Schmidt (2002)

Directed by Alexander Payne. Starring Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Kathy Bates, Dermot Mulroney, June Squibb, Harry Groener, Connie Ray, Howard Hesseman, Len Cariou, Matt Winston. [R]

Recent retiree Nicholson suddenly loses his wife (Squibb) and takes an extended road trip in the family RV on the eve of his daughter (Davis) marrying a schnook (Mulroney) who he’s convinced is not good enough for her. An odyssey of reflection and regret from a man who realizes late in life how flimsy his relationships and accomplishments are, propelled by the sort of awkward, barbed observational humor that co-writers Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor are known for. Appropriately relaxed in its pace, though never remotely slow or dull, this movie is poignant at times, laugh-out-loud funny at others (and sometimes both at once), with a decidedly un-Nicholson-esque performance from its star, his best in years. Doesn’t always earn its sentimentality, and the tackiness of his soon-to-be-in-laws is a little too broad for such an otherwise perceptive, personal film, but these blemishes are easier to swallow than the sandwich Schmidt requests from his daughter (mustard and mayo both? Good grief…). Payne’s idea for the movie was concocted over a decade prior, but after Louis Begley wrote a similar-minded novel some years later, he decided to mix the two stories into a loose adaptation of the literary source.

82/100