Monday, Jan. 13, 2003
About Schmidt, posted at 2:17 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com I saw About Schmidt over the weekend, starting off my resolution to see a movie every week this year. Despite the accolades for the film, I was a little disappointed. The film was probably a victim of my oversized expectations, stemming from both the critical raves and the film's pedigree. It was written and directed by the same team behind Election, a movie I absolutely love and laugh out loud at.Like that movie, this one also boasts a terrific lead performance. Instead of Reese Witherspoon, it's Jack Nicholson in the lead role. He's good, but I hope he doesn't win the Oscar. He never totally inhabited the role, and I never forgot it was Nicholson up there. He's never quite able to resist some of the Nicholson mannerisms or vocal inflections, and I never was totally convinced that he was a retiring midwesterner.
The movie has moments of truth and clarity that were brilliant. I loved a scene in which Nicholson has dinner in a trailer park with a traveling couple, and the woman tells Nicholson, "You are a sad, angry, and lonely man," yet with nothing but sincere compassion in her voice. Nicholson's constant letters to his adopted foster child are an effective way for voice-over narration to occur without being annoying, and they add pathos to his character. The supporting cast, from Kathy Bates (funny, authentic) to Dermot Mulroney (unrecognizable) to Hope Davis (heartbroken and settling), is superb.
Still, I found the film pretty slow, with too much exposition and not enough climax. It works well as a character study and acting execise, but I was hoping for a little bit more from the team behind Election.
My grade: B-.
Next films on the agenda: Antwone Fisher, The Pianist, Rabbit Proof Fence, The Quiet American, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Chicago, The Hours. And when do Road to Perdition and About a Boy finally come out on video?
Favorite films so far from 2002:
1. Signs
2. Bowling for Columbine
3. Adaptation
4. Minority Report
5. The Two Towers
6. Gangs of New York
7. Spider Man
8. Kissing Jessica Stein
9. We Were Soldiers
Still got a lot to see, though... expect the list to change a lot before the final one comes out.
***
Jen got last entry's lyric title right, with the line "I try to not let my own breathing scare me off the road" coming from the great Dan Bern song "Black Tornado." I love that song. I'm taking a day off from the game this entry, because sometimes it is important to title an entry something where you can remember to come back to it.