A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: About Schmidt

Date Viewed: 2/8/03

Details:

Jack Nicholson (Warren Schmidt)

Hope Davis (Jeannie Schmidt)

Dermot Mulroney (Randall Hertzel)

Kathy Bates (Roberta Hertzel)

June Squibb (Helen Schmidt)

Director: Alexander Payne

Score: 0

The Review: I like Nicholson. As an old fart and curmudgeon-in-training, I like many of the characters he's played. I even like seeing him play himself. Normally.

But About Schmidt is not a normal movie. It is a boring movie about an abnormal old fart having a mid-life crisis at the wrong end of his life. Perhaps this happens often to the recently retired, but statistics do not necessarily make something interesting (usually, quite the opposite). There are some high points, some rather funny moments, and a few funny high points, but the bulk of this movie is a character study of someone I'd prefer not to know, prefer not to see acted out, and from whom I am manifestly uninterested in learning anything. Kathy Bates provides the sole enlightenment on screen, but she herself (in all her glory) cannot make this movie fascinating.

If this is a serious Oscar contender, then I am slowly becoming more and more disconnected from the American business of movie-making. Yawn.

27-Feb-03

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