ABOUT SCHMIDT (Alexander Payne, 2002) R

Reviewed: December 13th, 2002

Let us define "satire" according to either of Merriam-Webster's definitions (1 : a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn 2 : trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly) and then let us discredit the erroneous, widely perpetrated idea that the satiric nomenclature applies to About Schmidt, especially if the labeling is being pushed by co-writer/director Alexander Payne and his writing partner Jim Taylor themselves, who got very confused as to what movie they were making when they were halfway through crafting About Schmidt's script. About Schmidt is, in fact, a sometimes very poignant dramedy yearning to escape its filmmakers worst satiric impulses, a true, keen, understated slice-of-life saddled down in its latter half with desperately unfunny, broad, forced, sluggish humor. Note Merriam-Webster's use of the words "ridicule" "scorn" "sarcasm" "vice," and it's easy to see why satire often skirts dangerously close to a patronizing attitude, a condescension that some critics ridiculously feel pulsates throughout all of About Schmidt's runtime. What these critics are actually responding to are the 45 minutes or so in which Jack Nicholson's (whose performance, though excellent, is not the revelation some critics would have you believe; perhaps his marvelous, underseen performance in 2001's The Pledge was the revelation) titular character goes to Denver for his daughter's wedding and the aforementioned broad et al. humor which follows. What these foolhardy critics somehow overlook, however, is how much empathy -- not scorn or sarcasm -- drives the majority of About Schmidt, as Payne and his collaborators work to explore a post-retirement crossroads rarely seen on film.

The moment About Schmidt first derails is as abrupt as a terrorist attack and more glaring than Halley's comet. Warren Schmidt has joined a couple -- who, like him, are taking a vacation in their Winnebago -- for dinner. Schmidt sits down on the couch next to the female half of the couple and she tells him something approximating the following: 'I see great sadness in you, Warren. Deep deep sadness. It goes deeper than your recent loss. There is a fundamental loneliness and discontent and pain in your existence. And it all stems from anger.' Cut to: Schmidt acting completely out of character in a wildly unearned moment.

Well, if Little Miss Analysis had mounted the same insightful burst into my brain while I was watching her scene, she'd find something far more potent than anger, more like a seething, white-hot rage. After just watching a gorgeous, sensitive hour of Payne and Nicholson gradually and meticulously establishing Warren's gentle sadness, I am subjected to a cartoon in which Wile E. Coyote (the filmmakers) successfully drops an anvil on Roadrunner's (the audience) unsuspecting head. Like an attention starved child, Payne and Taylor pull on our shirt and shout: "Did ya see what we've been doing for the past hour?! Did ya?! Do ya really understand Warren Schmidt?! Well, just to make it clear to all those clueless idiots out there, listen while we blatantly scream in a concise passage everything we've been doing!" Rarely have I been so disappointed with a single scene.

Unfortunately this scene is completely indicative of Payne/Taylor's attitude towards the material for nearly the rest of the movie (save a fine, bittersweet, ambiguous ending which recalls the greatness of the film's first hour). No longer concerned with developing Warren Schmidt or dealing with complex emotions and carefully moving their audience, Payne/Taylor resort to caricatures (the entire supporting cast, pretty much; Kathy Bates is sex crazed! Hope Davis is obnoxious! Dermot Mulroney is dumb!) and horribly unfunny gags (the mere fact I have to characterize them as "gags" disappoints me). It seems as if Payne and Taylor didn't know where to take About Schmidt past the halfway point; instead of exploring Schmidt and his daughter's relationship in earnest (a potentially fascinating dynamic which is barely hinted at), Schmidt absentmindedly wants to interfere with his daughter's wedding plans. His rationale that Mulroney doesn't deserve his daughter really irked me; despite Mulroney's character's moron status, at least he's sweet and good-natured whereas the daughter's just a grating cunt (she refuses to allow Schmidt to spend any extra time with her when he offers to visit and help prepare the wedding yet when he does finally arrive she yells at him, complaining of how busy she's been and how she's barely been able to stay afloat without his help).

About Schmidt is obviously not as strong as Payne's masterpiece, Election, but it's an important evolutionary step in his career, a deliberate movement in a new direction. Payne should have pushed even farther -- meaning less inorganic, "satiric" comedy, more quiet observations -- but the Schmidt parts that work (which include a lot of striking imagery that's stuck with me, whether Nicholson clock watching or a simple midwestern landscape) soar like few other films this year.

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