Wednesday, May 22, 2002

About Schmidt

The LA Times is running a nice series on Cannes.

Today's article concerns Alexander Payne, the writer/director of the new Jack Nicholson vehicle -- About Schmidt.

I thought this line was cool:

"The main thing I had asked Jack is, 'I need you to play a small man,'" the director says.

Reuters has portions of a Nicholson interview. The whole thing is great, but here are some good parts if you are too lazy to click over.

Jack Nicholson lets it all hang out in "About Schmidt," the tale of a retired man facing up to his mediocre life, which the actor described as the most miserable role of his life.

Key to it was Nicholson's willingness to flout Hollywood convention by playing a character who is both physically and morally unattractive.

"I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the whole three months I was doing this picture because I thought I would never return to myself," the actor said Wednesday.

Schmidt is a fat, balding man with a comb-over and Payne, known for stripping his actors of all artifice, did the 65-year-old Nicholson no favors.

"This is the least vain performance I think I've ever given. You know, no shadow under the chin," Nicholson said with a laugh, referring to the lighting tricks directors use to make their stars look good.

Schmidt, recently retired from his job as an actuary at an insurance firm in the U.S. Midwest, falls apart after the death of his wife, a woman he secretly hated but relied on to keep his life orderly.

He sets off for Denver, where his daughter is about to marry under-achieving waterbed salesman Randall, played by an almost unrecognizable Dermot Mulroney.

Schmidt shares his journey of self-discovery in unintentionally comic letters to a 6-year-old Tanzanian orphan he sponsors through a charity.

"He's a miserable man to inhabit, worse than any drama I've ever done," Nicholson said. "You don't get the joke when you're playing the character, you just have to be that guy, so it was trying in that way."

My favorite rating site -- Rotten Tomatoes -- has a page for the movie, but only two reviews so far. Both positive.

posted by Bohica at 10:07 AM