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In Reply to: Re: About Schmidt? posted by PdL on August 19, 2005 at 09:56:16:
I disagreew with you guys on "...Schmidt". I found it a great performance by Nicholson and a great study of a man entering retirement.
Follow Ups:
Other than that it was a decent movie that was over-rated IMO.
"Where are we going? And what am I doing in this hand basket?"
Despite the fact that Nicholson personifies the "L.A. Movie Star" .... sitting in the front row of a Lakers game (or whoever is in first place? ) Personally I think he's a great actor. I'm amazed at the volume of his many great performances that have spanned over decades. And that's withstanding the temptation to "Jack Out" ALA Cuckoo's Nest. I was personally mesmerized by his recent performance in "The Pledge" and I was also impressed by his wonderful performance in "Schmidt". I really felt that he conveyed a character who needed to rise above his habits and narcissism in order to keep living and growing . I’m not in favor of “Schmidt” belonging in a "Top 1000 Best" ranking but sometimes Hollywood Stars become so iconic that we forget what great artists they are.
I don't think it is insightful in that regard... it tries to present one concocted story, and perhaps it is believable to some, but that doesn't make it right or poignant.The film has as much in common with real life as global warming with science.
I think you are taking the story too literal. He not only retires, but also looses his wife, and soon thereafter, finds out that she was having an affair with his best friend, and then, to top it all off, is about to watch his only daughter become married. You left those salient facts out of your post. I think that those added facts illustrate that this film was not meant to be anything more than entertainment. Maybe there is someone, somewhere, who has experienced all these events at roughly the same time, but I doubt it.Besides, I am not sure how any film can teach one about retirement, marriage, love, etc., any more than they can teach you how to fish, build a boat, a house, or design an amplifier. If film is where you go for enlightenment, perhaps a trip outside is appropriate.
Having written all that, is it believable that a man who has recently retired, nothing to keep him at home, with a newly purchased motor home sitting in the driveway, depart on wheels to his daughter's abode in order to attend his wedding, and in the midst of that travel, take side trips to places of meaning for him? Absolutely. I think that was the essence of Rico's post. Those journeys would take different people to different places, but many people in his situation would take that journey.
Funny, you did not levy the same "real life" critism with "Love Me if You Dare", a film with far less of a foot in real life. But then, it was not American, and maybe, contrary to my limited observations, Europeans spend more time playing mind games with each other than contemplating the meaning of life.
***Funny, you did not levy the same "real life" critism with "Love Me if You Dare"Hardly funny... as I don't recall anyone claim it was a film about real life.
"I found it a great performance by Nicholson and a great study of a man entering retirement."A great study of a man entering retirement is not the same thing as writing a that it is "real life" anymore than suggesting that because Romeo and Juliet is a great study of love means that it is real life. Romeo and Juliet is a great study of love, but because the statement as applied to the latter is true, it does not necessary follow that the statement implies that the story is necessarily reflective of a real event, or real persons, or real life.
You implied a meaning where none was necessarily intended, and therefore it was appropriate for me to use the same analysis as applied to Love Me if You Dare. If you can construe a such a meaning to About Schmidt, and you did not suggest that such was not the intent of the film maker, then shoot down it as not being "real life", then it would hypocritical not to construe the same meaning to Love, given that we do not know the intent of the film maker.
Otherwise, there must be some unstated reason why you would infer such an intent in About Schmidt where you would not in "Love." I postit the reason is that one is French, and one is American.
***Otherwise, there must be some unstated reason why you would infer such an intent in About Schmidt where you would not in "Love."I did not say much about that film at all. How you come up with all that "logic" is beyond me. Pure fantasy. Something obviously gets you going... not sure what.
"How you come up with all that "logic" is beyond me. "For once we agree.
Great Nicholson performance. And everytime said "Dear, Ndugu", and narrated the letter, Nicholson's speech pattern had me rolling.
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