About Schmidt

Warren Schmidt retires as an insurance actuary, loses his wife soon after, and spends his days writing letters to a Tanzanian child he sponsors through a charity. Those letters are the film's voice: everything Schmidt cannot say to himself he writes to a six-year-old. What Jack Nicholson does here runs against his whole career. No shouting, no eyebrows, none of the usual equipment. Roger Ebert wrote that Nicholson somehow finds a slowly developing hunger inside all that emptiness. Kathy Bates's hot tub scene became the most discussed thing in the film and brought her an Oscar nomination. Nicholson won the Golden Globe and was nominated for the Academy Award. Alexander Payne's script actually predated Louis Begley's 1996 novel by years. Filming took place across Nebraska in 2001, centred on Payne's hometown of Omaha. On a 30 million dollar budget it grossed 105.8 million worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like late regret and very quiet comedy. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a warm ending. The final scene offers consolation while showing exactly how small that consolation is.