"About Schmidt" by Boo Allen ****1/2/5
Rated 124 minutes

Think about it. Let it sit in your brain for a bit. Then, after a few days, a week, or maybe even a month, you’ll find yourself more and more fond of "About Schmidt."
This bitter-sweet tale needs reflection. It’s perfectly fine while watching, but every subtle nuance of Alexander Payne’s ("Election") third film needs time to hit home. And none of Payne’s gentle probing could have been possible without the man at the center.
In a brilliant autumnal performance, Jack Nicholson plays Warren Schmidt, the Babbitt-like insurance executive who finds retirement more difficult than the daily grind he endured for more than forty years as an actuary at the anonymous Woodman company. When his somewhat irritating wife suddenly dies right after his retirement, Schmidt heads out on the road in his R.V.
The once-sheltered widow undertakes a wandering, Homeric adventure throughout the mid-west before landing in Denver to see his scatter-brained daughter (Hope Davis) marry a hopeless loser (Dermot Mulroney).
Payne gently takes Schmidt through a transformational process that hints you’re never too old to learn, gain experience, enjoy life, or be surprised at how it all turns out. He never hits us over the head with anything, a technique greatly aided by Nicholson’s low-key performance that belies the turmoil raging below Schmidt’s somewhat placid surface. Watch how often Nicholson conveys a thought or a feeling without saying a thing.
The film is based on a novel by Louis Begley that originally saw Schmidt as a Wall Street executive. But Payne, and his permanent writing partner Jim Taylor, have re-set the story to Payne’s home town of Omaha, Nebraska. This resettlement obviously allows him a degree of comfort and also gives him an opportunity to expound as one of the few U.S. filmmakers with a distinctive voice.
Schmidt’s world never becomes a raucous one but one that provides a world of enlightenment for the 66 year-old, whether it be discovering his dead wife’s love letters from a long-ago suitor, or meeting other retirees at the R.V. park, or simply attending the endless parade of cheesy tourist attractions.
Payne has crafted a measured, warm work that works on so many levels that it would take several viewings to catch it all. Just give yourself plenty of time to think about it.