About Schmidt begins with the retirement of Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson), an insurance company executive in Omaha. At his retirement party, his friend Ray (Len Cariou) makes a speech in honor of Warren saying, “what really means something is the knowledge that you’ve devoted your life to something meaningful.” The rest of the film is dedicated to Warren trying to figure out if that really has been the case in his life.

We quickly discover that life for Warren isn’t as great as Ray made it out to be. Warren is depressed and lonely – and now that he no longer works, he is bored. He lives in irritation with his nice, but simple, wife (June Squibb). Things turn for the worse when she dies and he realizes she was really the only thing he had. He then discovers his friend Ray had betrayed him some time ago. He tries looking to his self-absorbed daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis), who is engaged to Randall (Dermot Mulroney), a waterbed salesman who buys into pyramid schemes. But it turns out that the only person Warren can really turn to is a six-year old African boy whom Warren has sponsored for $22 a month and writes frequently.

Warren eventually travels to Denver for his daughter’s wedding and comes to terms with himself and how he ought to react to life. The most humorous portion of the film comes as Warren stays with Randall’s family and deals with Randall’s eccentric mother, Roberta (Kathy Bates). The humor throughout the film really is genuine, though fairly deep and sad as well. The humanity of the characters, and especially Warren, emits a real melancholic humor. Jack Nicholson puts out one of his best performances and really gains sympathy for his character, even though you could justly argue that all of Warren’s problems are his own fault. Bates is also as good as always. The slow pacing of the film encourages the mournful spirit of contemplation that envelopes Warren – but then, sometimes slow is just too slow.

The ending of the film is fairly trite and superficially touching - though I like the fact that his redemption comes from a single child and not from the whole community a la Mr. Holland’s Opus, but are we really supposed to believe that this kid makes up for the rest of his life? Well, probably not. And focusing on the ending does miss some strong earlier moments. Perhaps the real thematic climax of the film comes as Warren, alone on the road at night, realizes that he probably wasn’t the best husband in the world, and shifts the blame for his life from his wife to himself. He asks for his wife’s forgiveness, wherever she may be, and then realizes that he now “feels clear, for the first time in years.” Warren’s ability to forgive and let go of his resentment spreads from his wife to his daughter and son-in-law, wherein he gives a wedding speech that makes up the true emotional peak of the film.

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