About Schmidt is a one-man road movie. Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) is a recently retired insurance actuary. Warren’s retirement party is a bitter reminder that he is being ejected from working life, considered ‘out of use’. Warren is unnerved by the ‘celebration’. It is especially hard-hitting when Warren’s friends briefly lists Warren's accomplishments during his time at the company - he has given his life in serving the group, bringing them forward, and making them money; all for a small party and pension plan. In the middle of his own retirement party, Warren strolls into the bar next door and orders a drink alone…
Subtext, Old and Useless
Warren experiences a void in his life. He questions his own self-worth, and wonders what to do next. He visits his replacement at work, as Warren puts it, ‘to make sure everything is running smoothly’. The young man is polite but dismissive. There is an example of subtext in this scene, which is executed ruthlessly, to the point of making one cringe and sympathize with Warren. Upon realizing Warren’s lost direction and attempt to make himself ‘useful’, the young replacement ends their civilized, yet subtly painful conversation by glancing at his watch, suddenly 'remembering' a meeting he has, and suggesting they ‘take the elevator down together?’ Warren is wounded, but conceals the truth from his wife when he returns home and tells her: ‘It’s a good thing I stopped by, they needed my help.’
Warren decides to help a poor child in Africa, to feel needed. He sends Ndugu a cheque every month, along with a letter. In his letters, Warren lets loose and reveals in detail all the things that bother him. He uses Ndugu as a confidant, something he hasn’t found in anybody physically closer to him.
Bad to Worse
After Warren complains about his wife’s habits in a letter to Ndugu, she dies while vacuuming. The role of the vacuum is emphasized in the scene; there is a long-held close-up of the suction panel, after Warren discovers her body, possibly symbolizing that she’s now been sucked out of his life. Of course, it hits Warren hard. He misses her.
Warren then discovers that his wife was unfaithful to him years earlier when he finds an old letter. Warren sees this as another example of lack of control in his life – even the past is changing and revealing itself to be illusionary, and insincere.
Fuelled by loneliness and a need to keep moving, Warren takes a road trip in his Winnebago motor home to see his daughter Jeannie, to convince her not to marry Randall (Dermot Mulroney), a man he deems unsuitable. Jeannie is resistant during his phone call to her en route, and unresponding to his attempts to bond with her. She insists her father arrives closer to the wedding date, as planned. This is another slap in the face for Warren, a further example of a lack of control, meaning and purpose.
On the Road
Warren takes a slow road trip to Denver (where Jeannie is), stopping along the way at his old college, his old home (now a tire yard), and in campsites. Warren is trying to rediscover himself, or simply discover himself, as he deals with the emotional turmoil of great change and loss. What has he done with his life? He wonders. Where did it go wrong, or right, and did it go right at all?
Warren meets a couple who kindly invite him into their home. They warm to him, and the woman observes that Warren is ‘a sad man.’ Warren says he wishes he met her forty years ago, instead of his wife, and things might have been different. He follows his speech by making a pass at the woman, embarrassing himself and gaining banishment from their home. Warren made this move out of desperation; a need to find meaning, to heat up his life, and most of all, as revenge on his wife for her unfaithfulness many years previous (the wound is fresh to Warren, who’d only just discovered his wife's secret).
Warren’s attempts to stop his daughter’s wedding are unsuccessful. In another important scene, Warren describes to Jeannie a dream he had. In his dream, some aliens attempt to snatch Jeannie and take her away. In the dream, the faces of the mysterious captors look like Randall (Jeannie’s fiancé). This is a direct expression of Randall’s fears about the future and his relationship with Jeannie, and an indication that he sees Randall as a threat intent on taking his daughter away. In revealing his dream, Warren embarrasses himself. The dream and revelation of it are undoubtedly brought on by Warren’s uncertainty and desperation in life, but as a result he is seen to be pathetic. It is a low point for Warren, one seen through immediately by Jeannie and the audience, but one that speaks volumes about Warren’s state of mind, and the extents he is willing to go to convince her.
The pressure on Warren builds. He reluctantly bites his tongue on matters that bother him. His reflection on his life continues, and the tone of the film, although sometimes comical, is bittersweet. On one hand it is the opposite of the popular coming-of-age story, revelling more in the dissecting and analyzing of a life passed, but similar to the coming-of-age story with its themes of uncertainty, change, progress, and the emotional roller-coaster journey one faces with important changes.
A Conclusion
Eventually Warren finds some reason, a salvation, in the form of a letter from Ndugu. Ndugu’s nurse writes that Ndugu is recovering from hospital treatment, and that he is grateful for Warren’s financial aid. He thinks of Warren everyday and wishes hims the best. Attached to the letter is a child’s drawing of two stick-men, hand in hand, with the sun shining bright behind them. Warren realizes he has touched this boy’s life and made a huge difference from such a distance. Warren is overcome with tears as he looks at the picture.
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