About
Schmidt
Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) is dead inside. He’s been married 42 years and has worked for about as long at the Woodman of the World Insurance Company. At a retirement dinner thrown in his honor, he accepts his colleague’s tributes as if they were death sentences but endures them all, as he has most everything in his life. After his wife’s death, he is forced to reconsider the burdens he’s carried for so long.
The journey of self-discovery that Warren takes makes up the bulk of Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt, a bittersweet film about a man seeking purpose in life long after the opportunities to make a difference have slipped away. It is a meandering trip, but a worthwhile one. Nicholson offers a subdued and quiet performance that is as different from his traditional, expressive portrayals as Warren is from Nicholson’s own wild-man persona. Much of the film’s fun comes from seeing the edgy actor deal with such mundane concerns as worrying about the ever-spreading wrinkles on his face, finishing a word puzzle in the morning newspaper, or biting his tongue when he so desperately wants to speak. Yet, Nicholson once more reminds us why he is one of the best film actors of the last half-century. He makes us care for this forgotten man, not by playing him as a fool but as a misguided, kind-hearted soul.
Warren sets out to do one good thing. He thinks of Denver, where his daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis), is planning to wed Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney), an insincere dolt with few prospects and even fewer brain cells. So Warren hits the road for Colorado in the mobile home he and his wife were to use for their retirement, arriving at the home of Randall’s mother, Roberta (Kathy Bates, who steals nearly every scene she’s in), where his worst fears are realized. He tells Jeannie that it’d be a huge mistake to marry into the Hertzel family. However, upon telling her this, Warren finds himself face-to-face with a resentful daughter who accuses him of being a poor father, something he’s either ignored or never known.
In Payne’s hands, the film plays like a comedy. For instance, Warren sponsors a child in Tanzania through a world aid organization. When he sends his checks, he also includes long, personal letters that replay his failures and disappointments. A scene that shows a poor, six-year-old African boy receiving a letter in which Warren encourages him to pledge to a fraternity when he goes to college is priceless and the film’s most touching moment.
Though Schmidt is memorable and unique, Payne’s Election is far better. Warren’s side trip to his old haunts slows the film down considerably and there are times when the director’s writing works against Nicholson’s best efforts to make his title character sincere and genuine. A trim here and there would have resulted in a tighter, more effective film.
Warren discovers that our good intentions stretch far wider than we expect, though often in ways we wouldn’t want. This lesson comes late, and Payne’s delayed revelation of Warren’s discovery makes it all the more powerful. It’s Schmidt’s small but important gift that ends up making all the difference.
(Running time 2:04; rated R)
Grade B+
Adaptation
Charlie Kaufman (Nicolas Cage) has a problem, quite a few actually. Convinced he’s balding, overweight, and without talent–all gross misrepresentations–the neurotic screenwriter and Oscar-nominee consistently undercuts his own best efforts with self-doubt. He is currently adapting Susan Orlean’s (Meryl Streep) best-seller, The Orchid Thief, into a screenplay. This nonfiction book examines the shady methods of horticulturist John Laroche (Chris Cooper), an eccentric who gathers and breeds orchids. Adamant about not turning the book into a Hollywood formula filled with requisite car chases, gun battles, and a life-affirming message, Kaufman is at his wit’s end. How do you bring to the screen a book about flowers, obsessive orchid hunters, a brief history of Florida, and the search for the elusive “ghost orchid”?
Charlie’s first screenplay contains every cliche he despises. Perhaps if his twin brother Donald (Cage), his more confident alter-ego, meets Orlean and receives insight from her, he can turn the screenplay around. But Charlie has fallen a bit in love with her, leaving him in even worse shape.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in director Spike Jonze’s Adaptation, a remarkable film in which the director and Kaufman, who wrote the screenplay, tweak every narrative convention within their grasp and present a positive message about taking on life’s difficulties. Yes, the fictional Charlie wants to avoid feel-good endings and the car chases and the gun play, all three of which pop up in Adaptation. But in the hands of the real Kaufman and Jonze, the moral is genuine. Even the cliches resonate with a post-modern and relevant spin.
Charlie and Donald Kaufman are given screenwriting credits for Adaptation, even though Donald doesn’t really exist. Susan Orlean is a writer for the New Yorker and her book The Orchid Thief was a best-seller. Laroche is real as well. Donald’s screenwriting instructor, Robert McKee (Brian Cox), is a real person and his book on the subject, Story, is readily available. Scenes from Being John Malkovich, Jonze’s previous film, are glimpsed in the background, with John Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Malkovich himself popping up to lend a “realism” to the film, such as it is. But these facts blend in with the story’s fictitious plot, creating a lot of fun.
The performances are just as sharp as the writing, the caliber usually recognized when awards are handed out. Cage, who has now paid adequate penance for getting lost in the dark jungle of overblown action flicks, is fantastic here. In taking on the dual roles of the Kaufmans, he brings to life two distinct individuals. We empathize with Charlie and his neurotic ways throughout, but we also can’t help but smile whenever Donald shows up, bursting with enthusiasm and a charming sense of naivete. Streep, consistent as ever, initially portrays Orlean as a confidant, assured woman but with a hint of doubt and desperation. And Cooper finally gets a role to match his talent. Relegated to supporting parts in mainstream films (The Patriot, American Beauty)–while given starring roles in the work of writer/director John Sayles (Lone Star, Matewan)–the actor dominates the screen whenever he appears.
Adaptation is the thinking person’s action film, a dense movie that entertains and stimulates the mind with its radical, ambitious approach. In the end, the film’s message is far from original but no less powerful. As with the entire cast of Adaptation’s memorable characters, we all must find something to love, and without any need for apologies or regrets.
(Running time 1:52; rated R.)
Grade A
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2003.
