About Schmidt: Critic Reviews

One of the best films of the year.

Lays out an expansive, impressively even-handed vision of life in contemporary Middle America.

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.

Nicholson ... produces the most understated -- and one of the most powerful -- performances of his career.

The pleasures of About Schmidt are what might be called Midwestern pleasures: a sly sense of humor, sturdiness, self-discipline, solidarity.

A brutally dry satire of Middle American numbness.

An impressively bleak comedy with intimations of social satire.

One of the best, most understated performances of [Jack Nicholson's] career.

The film aims to be funny, uplifting and moving, sometimes all at once. The extent to which it succeeds is impressive.

Schmidt's ponderings will touch every demographic. Like all our lives, his is hilarious and tragic, filled with probing thoughts and whimsical nonsense.

About Schmidt winds up being about us all.

These filmmakers have a feeling for the isolation of blasted lives, but they also can't resist putting them down.

That Jack Nicholson makes this man so watchable is a tribute not only to his craft, but to his legend.

This is a superb film and one of Nicholson's great performances, tamped down but magnetic.

A quiet, heart-rending masterpiece, one with an actor's turn that people will remember, and rediscover, eons into the future.

By turns hilarious and poignant, Schmidt is about nothing special and everything important.

Each deft stroke of Payne's pen is matched by a Nicholson flourish, transforming the film into a moving, bittersweet ballet.

Both as satire and as drama, About Schmidt turns out to be a fascinating setback.

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 ...

A must-see for Nicholson's mesmerizing performance, which would probably hold interest even if the sound were turned off.

A thought-provoking and often-funny drama about isolation.

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.

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.