Unfair review #8
About Schmidt is the last film I saw. It's good and bad, in pretty much equal measures.
Good:
- Jack Nicholson playing the old man he actually is (or would be if he lived in the real world, not Hollywood).
- The many little moments of comedy, most of them recognisable from real life.
- The deep sadness of the main character.
- The lack of direction in the story - it meanders, seemingly as if it was made up on the spot. This can't be the case, as it originated as a novel, but it seemed that way to me.
- The deep sadness of the main character - I know I've got this as a good point, but even with the final scene of the film, I found it rather unrelenting, and (I'll admit) a little bit overwhelming.
- The length. ***SPOILER*** This is the longest World Vision child sponsorship advertisement I've ever seen. ***SPOILER***
I'll watch it again when I'm 60 (hopefully the holographic re-dub will be out by then).
1 comment:
Well, I loved 'About Schmidt'. It's the best Nicholson performance I've seen, because he relies sparingly on the old shark's grin and eyebrow-raises and actually gets inside the character instead. I also happen to think Alexander Payne is an excellent director, capable of extracting nearly everything from the stories he selects, and in a way that you hardly even notice. By that I mean he rarely draws attention to himself - the camera is usually stationary, the shots longish - but his films are indelibly his. See 'Election' and 'Sideways' for further proof.
Perhaps I should just do a counter-review?
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