Jack Nicholson Movie:

Editorial Review:
While confirming Jack Nicholson's status as an American national treasure, About Schmidt is sure to provoke polarized reactions. Stoked by the success of Election, director Alexander Payne and cowriter Jim Taylor have altered Louis Begley's novel to suit their comedic agenda, turning Nicholson's titular character into a 66-year-old, newly retired Omaha insurance actuary, weary from decades of drudgery and passionless marriage. When his wife suddenly dies, he attempts to reclaim his life in a king-sized Winnebago, desperate to convince his daughter (Hope Davis) not to marry the Denver dimwit (Dermot Mulroney) whose mother (Kathy Bates) has her own baggage of peculiar peccadilloes. Nicholson perfectly (and often hilariously) nails the seething anger beneath his character's façade of resignation, but Payne and Taylor convey cold-hearted contempt for these Midwestern malcontents. Think of this as Ikiru with bleaker humanity, until Schmidt finds meaning--and some small reward--in a quiet gesture of goodwill. Love it or hate it, About Schmidt is a movie you won't soon forget. --Jeff Shannon

About Schmidt [Region 2] Reviews:
It gets better after the first half hour
2009-11-28 - It's about a depressed old guy who just retired as vice president of an insurance company. He has alot of material things, but every other aspect of his life is messed up.Especially his relationships with his friends, wife and daughter. Turns out the only thing he was good at was insurance.Feeling bad about this, he adopts one of those feed the children kids and vents to the kid in these really long letters about his life. This prompts him to visit his daughter in Denver and tries to stop her from marrying her man - child ,mullet - wearing, fiance.
This movie stars off so slow. Its almost painful to watch the first half hour,there was no reason the first half hour of the movie to drag like that. But once you get through it gets better. And Jack Nicholson was suprisingly good in a performance as the straight man. He can elicit emotion from just moving an eyebrow. And cathy bate's was great as the tacky hippie earth mother. The waterbed scene is hilarious.Hope Davis elicit's strong emotion as the angry daughter who always felt like her dad's job was more important than her.

Another side of Jack Nicholson
2009-09-30 - Not your typical role for Jack nicholson, but one he nails. A wry, dark, funny slice of life from Midwestern Americana. Kudos to Kathy Bates for a superb supporting role and for personal bravery (nude scene) Hope Davis and Dermot Mulroney are good too. Not a fast paced film, but full of dry humor, ironies and stuff that makes you sigh and laugh. See it.

Dreadfully Slow
2009-08-06 - This is one of the most boring movies I've ever seen. It opens with Nicholson's character sitting and staring at the clock on the last day of his retirement, which would probably be about as exciting as watching this movie was. Horrific. Unrealistic characters, with Nicholson's in particular, drawn as if written by a high school student about what he imagine's his father's life is like.

AWFUL MOVIE!
2009-06-04 - Yuch! What a terrible movie! This has got to be Jack Nicholson's worst flick ever! It's about a 66 year old man who recently lost his wife and tries to convince his daughter not to marry a dim-wit. But along the way he meets the dummy's heavyset weird mom played by Kathy Bates and all hell breaks loose: She tries to seduce Jack Nicolson when she's grossly naked in a hot tub. No one would want to see a disgusting fat old Kathy Bates nude! Don't waste your time on this crap.

great movie
2009-05-28 - I used this film as an assignment for my gerentology class. It describes many of the situations that one goes through in the aging process. What better way to teach life lessons than with grace and humor.