About Schmidt
| About Schmidt | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Alexander Payne |
| Produced by | Michael Besman Harry Gittes |
| Screenplay by | Alexander Payne Jim Taylor |
| Based on |
About Schmidt by Louis Begley |
| Starring |
Jack Nicholson Hope Davis Dermot Mulroney Kathy Bates |
| Music by | Rolfe Kent |
| Cinematography | James Glennon |
| Edited by | Kevin Tent |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
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Release date
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Running time
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124 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million |
| Box office | $105,834,556 |
About Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Alexander Payne, produced by Michael Besman, Harry Gittes and Rachael Horovitz, co-written by Jim Taylor with music by Rolfe Kent and starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. The film also stars Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney and Kathy Bates. It is very loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. About Schmidt was theatrically released on December 13, 2002 by New Line Cinema. The film was both a commercial and a critical success and it earned $105,834,556 on a $30 million budget. About Schmidt was released on DVD and VHS formats. It was released on Blu-ray for the first time on February 3, 2015.
Warren Schmidt is retiring from his position as an actuary with Woodmen of the World, a life insurance company in Omaha, Nebraska. After a retirement dinner, Schmidt finds it hard to adjust to his new life, feeling useless. He sees a television advertisement about a foster program for African children, Plan USA, and decides to sponsor a child. He soon receives an information package with a photo of his foster child, a small Tanzanian boy named Ndugu Umbo, to whom he relates his life in a series of candid, rambling letters.
Schmidt visits his young successor to offer his help, but the offer is politely declined. As he leaves the building, Schmidt sees the contents and files of his office, the sum of his entire career, set out for garbage collectors.
He describes to Ndugu his longtime alienation from Helen, his wife, who suddenly dies from a blood clot in her brain just after their purchase of a Winnebago Adventurer motor home. Jeannie, his only daughter, and her fiancé Randall Hertzel arrive from Denver. They console him at the funeral, but Jeannie later berates him for taking his wife for granted, such as by refusing to fully pay for the Winnebago (he wanted the cheaper Minnie Winnie) and burying her in a cheap casket. He asks her to move back to take care of him, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Randall tries to entice him into a pyramid scheme.
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