OK, I 'm mostly healed from visions of Kathy Bates' nude scene, so I think I'm as good as I'll ever be to review this movie. In telling a friend I was going to see the movie, he had said that he was hoping to see it soon himself ... he liked Jack Nicholson movies. I kinda held my breath because everything I had read about this flick indicated that it was not exactly the prototypical Jack Nicholson flick. My viewing of the movie confirmed that. It's still good, and Jack does a bang up job with his character, Warren Schmidt. But don't expect him to blurt out some "Here's Johnny!" type of line. It's a very subdued, slow paced movie.
Before we get into the movie itself, there is one issue I have to ponder here. Warren Schmidt is a 66 year old midwestern man who is being forced to retire. Nicholson himself is fairly close in age to the character, so he himself is not a real stretch. But his wife in the movie, played by June Squibb (only a few years older than Jack in reality) is visibly much older. Yet, in 1980, his wife was ably played by Shelley Duvall (something like a decade younger, and with far more attractiveness, albeit in a very geeky style). So where did Jack's career go wrong that he can't play opposite women 10-15 years younger? I mean hell, he's dating the hottie from MIBII!!!
Anyways, I digress. The wife is offed very quickly in the movie, so its a minor point. The jist is as follows: Schmidt punches out of work for the last time as the movie opens. Its apparent early on that he now suffers from the realization that his life may be worth absolutely nothing. His young buck of a replacement at the office has no need for him to provide any further help. His archives are seen outside, as if waiting to be carted away, out of sight, out of mind. When the wife is buried, we get our first hint at symbolism with a cattle trailer being hosed down behind the ceremony. We see another cattle trailer later on, only full of cattle, awaiting slaughter, driving alongside of Warren as he journeys about the midwest in search of some meaning to his life.
Warren is a pretty sad, empty vessel of a man. By most measures, he's had a good run, being a successful, reliable employee with the same insurance company for numerous years, married to the same woman for about as long, and they've even cranked out a daughter who's about to get married. He's got a nice house, even bought a Winnebago to tour around in after retiring. But something is still seen missing in Warren's life. He doesn't know who his wife is, he doesn't really have a close relationship with his daughter, and he's basically left to feel as if he's done nothing good with his life.
Upon watching a TV commercial for one of those charity programs where you save a kid for mere pennies a day, Jack phones in and decides to enrich his life a little this way. When he gets his information packet, he follows the suggestion to include a note to the child in addition to the payment. The child, in this case, is the unseen Ndugu, a 6 year old Tanzanian child. Well, we see a picture of him that Warren recieves in the mail, but that's it. The real narrative of the movie ... the peek into Warren's psyche is seen in his letters to Ndugu. The timing of the voiceovers is about as funny as Warren's assumption that a 6 year old, starving Tanzanian kid will have the same cultural vantage point as himself.
The scenes unfold as Warren comes to terms with being alone. His daughter returns from Colorado to help with the funeral, but when she leaves, we see the results of Warren being on his own for two weeks by way of his being left in a now filthy house with nothing left in the kitchen save for a single taco shell. Warren then takes it upon himself to hit the road to spend more time with his daughter. One problem ... his daughter has no interest in him being around more than necessary. Warren is no fan of her fiance and his efforts to have her rethink the wedding cover everything from subtle to blatant.
When Warren is told he doesn't need to be around ASAP, he decides to detour to his childhood home, his college, and a few other points of interest. The childhood home is replaced with a tire store. The college is now filled with disinterested young punks, not unlike the one who relpaced him at work, not unlike the one stealing his daughter away from him. Suffice it to say, its a very disillusioning journey for Warren.
By the time he hits Colorado to stay with his future in-laws, things look up somewhat. It proves temporary as Warren is freaked out by Kathy Bates on more than a few levels. Seeing Warren adjust to sleeping in his future son-in-law's waterbed is a scene worth remembering. I won't spoil it, but its probably one of the best generation gap scenes I've seen in a while. The son-in-law-to-be, it should be noted is pretty much based on the "Bill", from Bill & Ted fame. He's about as vacuous, and even manages to use the word "stoked" in a sentence.
By the time the wedding hits and we see Warren giving a speech afterwards, he at least seems to come to grasp with his fate. Its not a really uplifting moment, its not truly a depressing assessment either. It leans towards cynical, but yet still poignant. I'm not in the mood to really spoil much in the movie, although the premise is somewhat predictable. There are still enough twists and unusual elements in the movie to make it original.
The movie should be in general release within a week or two, so if you're not quite in the mood for seeing stuff blow up, or cars that go really fast, or films based on overly-pretentious and overly-wordy books that somehow made you come across as "smart" if you claimed to have read them all ... well then, watch this. Its a change of pace, to be sure. But its entertaining and worthwhile viewing.
