About Schmidt 2002

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: Nicholson's cranky father of the bride is as touching as he is exasperating, and the delightfully oddball About Schmidt is just about perfect. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: There is a casual courage and dignity, and no small amount of obliviousness, in Nicholson's Schmidt that will remind many younger people of their parents, and many older people of their brothers and friends -- and themselves. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A cuttingly funny, moving portrayal of a man searching for meaning in his unremarkable, unmemorable life. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: It's an astonishing piece of acting and a really interesting film. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: By turns hilarious and poignant, Schmidt is about nothing special and everything important. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: This is a superb film and one of Nicholson's great performances, tamped down but magnetic. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: Lays out an expansive, impressively even-handed vision of life in contemporary Middle America. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: To see a master actor rejoicing in his craft -- and a character both simpler and more complex than most of the people we ever meet on screen -- About Schmidt is a worthy, artful journey. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: This is Christmas Future for a lot of baby boomers. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A brutally dry satire of Middle American numbness. Read more

Manohla Dargis, Los Angeles Times: Perfectly pitched between comedy and tragedy, hope and despair, About Schmidt instead comes far closer than many movies to expressing the way many of us live -- someplace between consuming self-absorption and insistently demanding otherness. Read more

Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle: The film aims to be funny, uplifting and moving, sometimes all at once. The extent to which it succeeds is impressive. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: About Schmidt is undoubtedly one of the finest films of the year. If you're not deeply touched by this movie, check your pulse. Read more

Steven Rosen, Denver Post: About Schmidt winds up being about us all. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: One of the best films of the year. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The movie isn't just about Schmidt as a personality, it's a portrait of his world, and Payne and co-writer Taylor show a rare compassion for the superficially comfortable. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Schmidt's ponderings will touch every demographic. Like all our lives, his is hilarious and tragic, filled with probing thoughts and whimsical nonsense. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: Even while playing in a minor key with low-to-moderate tone colors, Jack Nicholson can knock your socks off. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: This road movie gives you emotional whiplash, and you'll be glad you went along for the ride. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: These filmmakers have a feeling for the isolation of blasted lives, but they also can't resist putting them down. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: One of the best, most understated performances of [Jack Nicholson's] career. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Both as satire and as drama, About Schmidt turns out to be a fascinating setback. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: On balance, I recommend the movie both for Nicholson's performance and for the opportunity to spend some time with the kind of man that we often meet in real life, but rarely see on screen. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: That Jack Nicholson makes this man so watchable is a tribute not only to his craft, but to his legend. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: Despite Jack Nicholson's competence, this comedy about a Midwestern retiree never goes beyond mocking its characters and flattering its audience. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A seriously good movie, a challenge to viewers, a rebuke of the way many Americans live their lives. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Payne's movie is flat, depressed, and at times -- given this director's talent -- disappointingly curdled. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: A road trip of self-discovery, by turns hilarious and poignant, for a man unexpectedly at odds with the tiny world he has so laboriously made. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: Payne also understands what it has taken me most of a lifetime to comprehend: that the Schmidts of this world are not to be easily dismissed. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Flamboyant in some movies and artfully restrained in others, 65-year-old Jack Nicholson could be looking at his 12th Oscar nomination by proving that he's now, more than ever, choosing his roles with the precision of the insurance actuary. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Nicholson has provided an open window into this man, one like so many in that he had youthful ambitions to accomplish more than he actually did ... Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: An impressively bleak comedy with intimations of social satire. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Nicholson ... produces the most understated -- and one of the most powerful -- performances of his career. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: The pleasures of About Schmidt are what might be called Midwestern pleasures: a sly sense of humor, sturdiness, self-discipline, solidarity. Read more