About Schmidt

2002 • 125 minutes

About this movie

Academy Award-winner Jack Nicholson ("The Bucket List," "As Good As It Gets") stars as Warren Schmidt, an embittered man who has just retired after 32 years as an insurance company actuary. When his wife dies suddenly, Warren packs up the 35-foot Winnebago that he and his wife had planned to travel the country in and sets out on a journey across the Nebraska plains to Denver, Colorado, for his daughter's wedding to a waterbed salesman whom Warren despises. Every move Warren makes seems wrong, and he appears destined to end his life as he lived it: a failure. But along the way, Warren recounts his journey to and shares his observations with an unexpected friend -- a poor Tanzanian orphan whom Warren is sponsoring for 73 cents a day. In his long letters to the boy, Warren begins to see himself -- and the life he has lived -- in a new light.

Ratings and reviews

Jack Nicholson is tremendous in his role as the insurance excutive transitioning into retirement. At precisley, five o'clock he leaves his office for the final time, his daughter, their only child, plans her wedding day without him marrying a person he objects to, his wife of 42 years, passes suddenly leaving him alone. He looks, as many would do, into the meaning of his life. What he finds is worth the "downer" side of where his life is going. The movie is truly about finding honesty in one's self and truth in the world. As always, Jack Nicholson is excellent as the character of Schmidt.

This movie is a total downer, flat and depressing!

A movie a father should share with their daughter when old enough.