It does more than entertain - it makes you think. I’m not always a patron at the movies to be eager to walk out happy or content that it was an enjoyable in-theaters experience. Not all movies are meant to make filmgoers depart the room cheerfully and with a bright smile on your face. While About Schmidt can make that happen for some, it can be a very big wake-up call to others in a very powerful, inspirational fashion. Forget movies like 8 Mile or Karate Kid with the underdog theme where the abused protagonist comes out swinging in the end, About Schmidt is more loyal to reality and that is where writer/director Alexander Payne goes right in this almost brilliant film.

Schmidt is the story that producers likely often times turn down because it is not a commercial film (and one that writers likely never write about because it’s not "Hollywood" enough). It’s too honest and frank about the reality of reality itself. We as moviegoers understand that there are lots of people like Warren Schmidt out in the world today, but placing that character on-screen is the daring move that has been executed in an extremely skillfully crafted style. About Schmidt is one of those few films that can slap someone hard on the face emotionally in an inspirational wake-up call. It’s a part-depressing story, but life can be too. But where it goes depressing it goes for a reason. Even in the most depressing situations (in the film, and even in real life), meaning can come out. And it is that meaning that can change someone.

The film tells the story of an old man (Warren Schmidt) going into retirement after selling insurance for his career. The movie opens on the last day of his job where he kisses his office goodbye to the new and younger employee who is to take his place. After an incident rocks his world (or so he thinks), Warren takes a road trip in his new Winnebago to see if he can find a purpose in life. He doesn’t feel like he’s accomplished anything great, which tosses him on the road on an adventure of locating his purpose in society. The great unique thing about Schmidt is that the journey of the film can not only serve our main character with a sense of reasoning in terms of life and belonging, but can also give the viewer the same via Warren’s personal trip.

There’s an element in About Schmidt that shares a comparison with Moonlight Mile, but where the latter film lacked was that it took the easier route and got too frightened to be too realistic in its portrayal of death. Schmidt isn’t afraid to be heavy on its drama whether it’s directly or indirectly. A good chunk of the picture is what the mind picks out of the cinematography shots and the scenes themselves than the verbally said material being shoved into our minds. Alexander Payne has written and directed this picture in a way where meaning and purpose in scenes or moments is up to the viewer to decipher. There are moments where it’s a simple cinematography shot, yet that simple angle can have a world of meaning and definition. And by no means will it be the same meaning for every mature person that takes the journey. This is one of About Schmidt’s highlight spots where the film makes its huge victory.

Alexander Payne previously wrote and directed Election, which featured Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon before she was a real big icon actress. I had re-watched that film about a month or so before I saw About Schmidt, and the trademark style of Payne’s filmmaking is very evident in both pictures. What the filmmaker has learned to do and has put on page with these two productions is to create a narrative device where the audience can easily look at each and every character. In Election, Payne featured voice-overs from various personas detailing characters’ personalities and social lives.

In About Schmidt, this narrative instrument is put to use once again in a very similar fashion via a plot device where our main character (Warren Schmidt – Jack Nicholson) is communicating via writing to a six-year old orphan overseas that Warren has adopted. Warren informs this young child about Schmidt’s family as well as his daughter’s marriage, which in return informs us about it all as well. In a sense, we are being placed into the shoes of this young orphan being adopted into this retired man’s life. We, through the sent letters, are able to view Schmidt’s life as he sees it. We are then able to make our own judgments and assessments.

While a familiar tactic a la Election, it does the job just fine and when true moviegoers ponder the idea it should be pretty apparent that really knowing these people we are watching for two hours strengthens the experience. When the viewer doesn’t know a character, how can they admire the persona or root for them? Especially in About Schmidt where plot structure is a very important factor, character breakdowns are essential for the audience to make their internal views and Alexander Payne has supplied filmgoers with yet another quite a treat of a script.

The performance by Jack Nicholson is in a way almost going against his stereotypical on-screen nature. Most folks are used to the actor’s charisma while in About Schmidt, it’s more of a comically dramatic delivery. Nicholson carries along a very serious nature about himself even if there’s a slight comical edge to it, but then breaks into his usual "Nicholson humor" off and on throughout the trip. If you thought the actor’s lines were witty and hilarious in As Good As It Gets, Payne has handed him relevant material at times that can result in downright belly laughs.

Nicholson gives the performance of the year in this film, as the nothingness-of-his-life quality flies from the man’s eyes and with every dialogue spoken and mannerism pulled. Warren Schmidt is one of those roles where Nicholson was pretty closely bound to play. At the top of my head, I don’t know of any other actor who could’ve executed the performance with as much courage as he displays. And some of it is not only courage, as there are certain humor edges where having any other talented star pull them off would likely come off with a different delivery. Jack Nicholson is one of the few actors/comedians today who can make a performance work simply because of who he is even if the role is dark or relatively harsh in whatever ways.

Nicholson somewhat pulls the Nicholson we don’t normally physically see, and for that the actor should be greatly applauded for this triumph. We know he can be funny when the material calls for it, but as for drama it doesn’t take very long in the film to realize how much the actor has converted himself into the role of Warren Schmidt to the point where he probably slept the role. In an interview regarding Me, Myself & Irene, comedian Jim Carrey once stated that it was not very hard for him to play two different parts. And judging from Nicholson’s career-to-date and his overall on-screen presence, I would highly imagine that much could be said about the man’s ability to transfer into various different acting stages. There’s got to be some challenges involved, but one must imagine that with someone like Jack Nicholson, the process is probably not overly challenging.

Giving away details regarding About Schmidt sort of takes the purpose out of the whole game. Essentially, the movie can give different meaning and definition to every moviegoer who walks through the doors. You might not want to accept this, which is by all means fine, but for those who do, Schmidt is a dream come true. It’s not a classic, as I had definitely had a few disagreements with scenes that didn’t feel very necessary in its goal to push the story further to where it needs to reach at the climax.

One scene involves Warren Schmidt coming on to a trailer park wife and another very unneeded sequence/scene where there was somehow reason for the audience to witness the underworld of Kathy Bates. For those who don’t know what I mean, consider that a good thing – your dreams are already more joyful. That sequence appeared as more of a gross-out moment, yet while it definitely achieves at retrieving giant "ewww!"’s from viewers (my whole crowd was literally gasping), plot-wise there just is no significance to it. About Schmidt is not a gross-out, raunchy movie, which this scene sort of intercepts and confuses the audience with. Let’s just put it this way, if every porn site on the net were to vanish and the world was left with nothing except the images of Bates in this movie, I think people would instead invest into areas of life they never would’ve thought existed for their pleasure.

The entire cast is really terrific in this movie, with Hope Davis (Warren’s daughter), Dermot Mulroney (Warren’s future daughter-in-law), and Kathy Bates giving winning performances. Mulroney is almost unnoticeable in this film with his ugly mullet, as he not only proves he can act but that he can do so incredibly well.

Kudos need to fly to Alexander Payne, as without his writing and direction Schmidt wouldn’t walk the screen nor would it exist in our movie-going experiences. I finish up this review without mentioning too much of the plot because it all makes a greater viewing environment as it unravels for the very first time. Knowing one thing can take away impact when such officially rolls out on-screen. About Schmidt lets the audience learn who Schmidt is, as he’s not really one person but many others out in the world. As we get to take a look at this man, comparisons can even be drawn to ourselves, which places a universal spin on it all. In a sense, this film can be about one of us. The film deals with the idea of finding purpose and reason in life, even if your time might be running out.

For mature filmgoers, About Schmidt can be an inspirational instrument to send a wake-up alert to how one lives their life. I’m convinced this movie can change someone’s outlook on life or their overall perspective. And it does so due to its true honesty and fearless takes on what we really fear and also, doesn’t present us with the outermost cheerfulness in the end that we may expect from such an indirect inspirational picture. About Schmidt delivers whatever the moviegoer chooses to accept, and part of it depends on your actual maturity or overall take on life itself. It’s not a mainstream picture because it demands thorough attention and investigation. It can be a film to leave the theater with you, which cannot be said about many other pictures out there that fail to bring to the screen this type of magnificent moviemaking.