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Reviewer: Nate Clarke
Lately I've been thinking a lot about what constitutes a meaningful life. When life in all its imperfections begins to crowd me, my quest for an answer becomes more frantic. About Schmidt was a timely film as it is the story of a man in the midst of chaotic change bumbling through this existentialist question. What follows is not so much a review of the film, but a look at the themes driving it. Warning, there are major spoilers here. As the film begins Warren Schmidt is entering a season of change. At his retirement party, his closest friend encourages him to believe that the riches of life are to be found in the fact that he did his job well and that he produced a great family. However, Schmidt soon learns that the legacy he left at his employer, Woodmen Insurance Company was quickly discarded as trash by his successor. He rarely sees his much-esteemed daughter who is engaged to a man that Warren considers a buffoon. Then after the death of his wife, he discovers that she had an affair with his closest friend. If this is where wealth is to be found, Schmidt is broke, without emotional resources, and hopeless. So Warren Schmidt is compelled to embark on a journey of desperation, a search for meaning. There is much in Warren Schmidt's life that opposes this trip. As an insurance actuary, Warren Schmidt claims that given the career, race, and medical history of an individual he can accurately predict the life span of said person. He lives in a world where a human is only the product of nature and nurture. People are statistics and a collection of nerve impulses. Schmidt is living in a world that is out of his control. He is a leaf that is at the mercy of the fickle winds of life. There is nothing he can do to determine his fate, it is out of his hands and there is an apparent randomness to life that sucks meaning out of everything. In the midst of such ideas, Schmidt is supposed to find some sort of energy to continue his life without his wife or his daughter. His pilgrimage of introspection begins as a voyage back in time. Thinking his past will give him meaning, Schmidt finds his childhood home has been replaced by a tire store. His alma mater provides him little solace, as the only evidence of his attendance is a tired photograph in the broom closet of his fraternity. His history has become another block in impersonal strip mall Americana and a simple wall hanging for a forgotten closet in an anonymous frat house. Along his journey, Warren discovers the hidden world of motor homing, complete with its own jargon and rituals. He makes fast friends with a down home couple who invite him over for dinner. When the husband is out getting more beer, Schmidt mistakes the sympathy of the wife for affection and kisses her. While she is deeply offended (and rightfully so) there is something understandable to what Schmidt has done, after all if he cannot find meaning in his past, perhaps in relationships with other people? Warren Schmidt is a desperate man and he is willing to try anything to come to some sort of resolution to his crisis. Schmidt continues his existential quest (along with his failures) and arrives in Denver for his daughter's wedding. He has made peace with his dead wife and is hopeful that he will find some sort of meaning in relating to his daughter. However, Schmidt is a confused man and he mixes up his genuine love for his daughter with his desperate desire to stop the marriage. So in an act of self-perceived fatherly love, he confronts his daughter about the marriage. She is deeply angered by her father's sudden interest in her. Not only is he rebuffed, but also the wedge between he and his daughter has grown. At the climax of the film, Schmidt gives a toast at the wedding. He desperately wants to declare this marriage a mistake — to win his daughter back. But what is the point? Such a proclamation would only alienate her that much more. This is not his role in life, so he gives a congenial and forced tribute to the new couple. At this point, Schmidt realizes he is just a function. There is no meaning to be found in his history or in relationships. He has done his job, he has paid his dues (literally for the wedding) and he has been a respectable member of society, except for his obvious, yet forgivable foibles. He has fulfilled his role in society. Yet this realization does not lead to freedom for the answer to his question feels unacceptable — "What is the meaning to life? There is no meaning, you just do your job and then you die." Upon returning to his home, he mopes unsatisfied around the house, waiting until his death — with his professional knowledge he figures he has about eight years or so. Shortly after, Schmidt receives a package from Ndugu, a Tanzanian child he began supporting after retiring. Throughout the past several months, he has been sending Ndugu letters, processing through his experiences in language no child, yet alone an African 6-year-old could understand. Yet those letters are a means of internal introspection — clearly Schmidt is the benefactor of them. In the package is a letter from Ndugu's teacher. She tells Schmidt of the effect his money has had on Ndugu's life. Included is a picture Ndugu has drawn of him holding hands with Schmidt. The art brings him to tears. Finally, he has had some impact on someone's life and they have impacted him, even if that person is half way around the world. About Schmidt is about meaning — namely, where do we find it. The director, Alexander Payne, crafts a film that shows the frustration we experience when we are confronted with the apparent scientific reality that we live in a world where we can have no genuine long lasting impact. Schmidt desperately wants to rebel against this, but as life passes him, he is forced to accept this reality. In the end, Schmidt finds some sort of true emotional experience in an interaction with a little boy. In a small way, he has broken out of the world in which he is forced to live. This is a new beginning for Warren Schmidt. Perhaps he can find purpose by giving to others, by relating to human beings. The great gift this film has to offer (other than seeing Kathy Bates nude and Jack Nicholson's tush) is that it allows us a glimpse into the philosophical quandaries that we often develop living in a modern society — feelings that lead to alienation and even suicide. The truth of the film is that without some sort of relational contact, we are doomed. However, how far will deep contact with one person, especially one so far removed, take an individual? After one gets a relational fix, where to next? About Schmidt raises some important dilemmas and offers an answer that is sincere and honest. However, it does feel incomplete and temporary. Does life become a journey from one life giving relationship to another or is there something more?
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