Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
About Schmidt (2002)
Director: Alexander Payne
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
After retirement and his wife's sudden death, insurance salesman Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) feels his life, and all the bland assumptions that have sustained it, slipping away from him. To get back on course, he travels in his Winnebago to see his beloved daughter (Davis) in the hope of preventing her marriage to a walking cliché (Mulroney) and of spending his remaining years with her. This perhaps excessively droll, even ponderous satire of Midwestern manners really takes off only when Warren reaches his prospective in-laws, allowing not only for alternative comic targets to arise but for Bates' beautifully judged turn to counterbalance Nicholson's admittedly impressive lead performance. Also enlivening are the letters to a Tanzanian child Schmidt sponsors - even though they strike a faintly false note of redemption in the final moments.Author: GA
Cast & crew
Director: Alexander Payne
Producer: Harry Gittes, Michael Besman
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, Howard Hesseman, June Squibb full cast
Duration: 125 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now