Amazon.com: About Schmidt: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Bill Badalato, Harry Gittes, Rachael Horovitz, Michael Besman, Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, Len Cariou, Howard Hesseman, June Squibb: Movies & TV

Actors: Jack Nicholson, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, Kathy Bates, Len Cariou
Directors: Alexander Payne
Writers: Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
Producers: Bill Badalato, Harry Gittes, Rachael Horovitz, Michael Besman
Format: Multiple Formats, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1)
Subtitles: Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Number of discs: 1
Rated:
R
Restricted
Studio: New Line Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007
Run Time: 124 minutes
Average Customer Review: 514 customer reviews
ASIN: B00005JLSK
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,393 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #2873 in Movies & TV > DVD > Comedy
- #4540 in Movies & TV > DVD > Drama

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Learn more about "About Schmidt" on IMDb

Great thinking movie...today is first day of the rest of your life.

March 15, 2014

Format: DVDVerified Purchase

Jack Nicholson gives another one of his amazing performances in About Schmidt.

Basically, it is about a man, who has to take stock of his life after having been set out to pasture (retired) by his company, where he was a Vice President, losing his wife and trying to come to terms with the man his daughter is in love with.

The Schmidt has been out of touch with his feelings for probably most of his life, loving his life with mid west values and responsibilities. Only after all these things hit at once does Schmidt begin to realize that this is not all life is about.

Feeling totally alone, he starts writing a 6 year old Tanzanian child (very inappropriately I might add)and telling them his thoughts, as he has no one he can talk to. I found that most fascinating.

We watch Schmidt and wonder if he will ever be prepared to take the first step of a new life. Very good movie.

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Man o 'tides

One of Nicholson's best performances

April 10, 2014

I like this movie more than anything because (A) Nicholson is in it and he is good and (B) because the makers of this film really got it about Nebraska. Oh...forgot (C) because this is about a character who earns his bread as an Omaha insurance actuary. How refreshing. A departure from the usual Hollywood heads of households roles who are lawyers.

The film begins as Scmidt is counting down the last seconds of his last day at the office before entering the world of retirement.

The scene changes to the ex actuary's retirement dinner. I like this film makers seeking after authenticity with the filming location at Johnny's..one of Omaha's finest steak houses. ( In my brief career as a life insurance agent who was sent to Omaha for a weeks training it brought back memories of cutting one of the finest steaks there and it looked liked Johnny's hadn't changed with it's 60' s family room paneling still intact).

Schmidt has, all these years, been in his cut and dried, left brain driven, number crunching vocation which consists of determining how long a person is expected to live. Very important to the life insurance industry.

He loved his work because with a spread sheet and calculators and mathmatic formulas and actuary tables he was in control.

However when he goes home to his wife of many years he is in only sort of in control.

She runs the house with an iron fist and has rules for his deportment in the bathroom. He wishes he could fit her into a calculator and handle her in a numerical way but he endures her even gritting his teeth when she insists on buying a motor home so they can travel in their sunset years. Schmidt doesn't share his wife's adventurous ways. He has few outside interests. He is a stay at home and watch TV kind of guy and may not even be a Cornhusker football fan.

One day his wife dies of a heart attack.

Now all he has left is the house, the motor home and his daughter who has always been the brightest spot in his life. His little girl who has always obeyed her father from kindergarten to womanhood.

That is up until now when she, in all of her plain Jane, clock-has-nearly- stopped tickingness , announces her engagement to a waterbed salesman, who on Scmidt's scale of 1 to 10 approval rating of prospective son-in-laws registers a resounding zero.

He then launches an all out effort to talk his daughter out of the marriage. Having failed in his phone conversations with his out of town daughter he accepts the invitation from the groom-to-be's divorced, free spirited mother (Cathy Bates) and her former spouse to be their guest as the wedding day soon approaches. Schmidt feels a last ditch face to face confrontation will do the trick with his daughter demanding she jettison her plans to marry.

Well I could go on about what transpires but I feel I have been somewhat of a spoiler so far and refrain for going on.

In summary About Schmidt is one of the most entertaining, engrossing, films I have seen.

There are hilarious moments. There are sad and tragic moments. And the final portion of the flim completely blew away the smug predictions I had for it.

As a person with Nebraska roots I particularly enjoyed this film and appreciated Nicholson who had to leave behind at retirement the answer to the "what do you do?" question and to the best of his abilities and to who he was take on the rest of what life threw at him.

One person found this helpful

Roxie Smeal

MOVIE ABOUT SCHMIDT

March 1, 2014

This is a movie that speaks to my age group, "Seasoned Seniors". I remember it being funnier when I saw it back when it was first on the big screen. It is the story of an recently retired insurance actuary who loses his wife unexpectedly shortly after he retires and has a hard time taking care of himself. He decides to take his newly purchased motor home on a road trip to Denver to attend his daughter's wedding a few weeks early, and when she asks him to come closer to the time of the wedding, he does a road trip to various landmarks along the way. Once he reaches Denver, meets the unorthodox future in-laws, especially the mother-in-law played by Kathy Bates, he is inclined to stop the wedding that he is paying for. After several days of activities around these new relatives, he reaches a decision about himself and his daughter, and in the end, blesses the couple. I would recommend this move for people of a certain age, and that would be over 60.

One person found this helpful2 people found this helpful

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