About Schmidt

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Len Cariou, Howard Hesseman

Directed by: Alexander Payne

RS: 4of 4 Stars

2002 Comedy

Just what we've been waiting for: a really depressing movie about an old guy. But when the old guy is Jack Nicholson and the director is Alexander Payne (Election), you can throw your worries away. Nicholson plays a just-retired, just-widowed insurance executive Winnebago-ing across the Great Plains on a mission to stop his daughter from marrying a nitwit. Sure, he means well, but he's really just an emotionally closed-off asshole. And Nicholson plays shut-down and repressed just as vividly as he plays crazy.

WILL DANA
(June 4, 2003)