About Schmidt

"About Schmidt" bears little resemblance to its source material (the best-selling novel by Louis Begley), aside from a few character names and some thematic elements. But in this case, that may be for the best.

While Begley's novel was extremely readable, it probably wouldn't have served for the basis of a satisfying movie. The humor was perhaps a bit too sly to translate easily to the big screen without some major alterations.

In fact, more than the book, this satirical comedy-drama has been altered in a way that resembles the other films from its makers — Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor's "Citizen Ruth" and "Election." Fans of those films will probably enjoy the darkness of the material and the observational character humor, although here the tone is occasionally too smug for its own good.

Consequently, "About Schmidt" is lucky to have Jack Nicholson, who stars as Warren Schmidt, a sixtysomething insurance adjuster who's reached retirement age. The problem is, he doesn't want to retire, though employers want him to, as does his wife (June Squibb), who has big plans for their post-retirement future. Unfortunately, she passes away, leaving him with a huge hole in his life.

Schmidt has few close friends, and his relationship with his daughter (Hope Davis) isn't exactly any closer. So he decides to patch things up with his daughter by taking a trip to Colorado to see her and her husband-to-be, failed entrepreneur Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney).

To his surprise, however, they're not that happy to see him, or to accept his attempts to help with planning their wedding. So they foist him off on Randall's loopy mother (Kathy Bates), who has designs of her own.

The latter plot points dominate the film, but the best moments may be Schmidt's half-hearted attempts at "charity" — sponsoring an impoverished child — which lead to a series of hilarious letter exchanges between the two.

While some of the humor here is fairly broad, Nicholson is at his most subdued, and he is therefore at his best (it's a fair bet that he'll receive his latest Academy Award nomination for this performance).

The supporting cast is also good. Davis is solid as usual, while Mulroney seems to be relishing the opportunity to play a doofus. And Bates' turn can best be described as brave (you'll have to see it to understand why).

"About Schmidt" is rated R for occasional use of strong sex-related profanity and crude sexual slang terms, brief female and male nudity, brief violence (a scuffle), brief drugs (tranquilizers) and brief sexual contact. Running time: 125 minutes.

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