7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Warren Schmidt is about to experience a bittersweet slice of life. Newly retired, he and his wife Helen have big plans to see America — but an unexpected twist changes everything. Now Schmidt is determined to stop his daughter's wedding to an underachieving water-bed salesman. From meeting the groom's eccentric parents to sponsoring a Tanzanian foster child, Schmidt sets off on his mission...and gets lost along the road to self discovery.
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Hope Davis, Dermot Mulroney, June SquibbDrama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
German: Dolby Digital 2.0
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Hungarian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Japanese is hidden
English SDH, German SDH, Italian SDH, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 2.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Screen legend Jack Nicholson will always be best known for floridly expressive characters like the Joker in Tim Burton's Batman, Jack Torrance in The Shining, Col. Nathan Jessup in A Few Good Men, Randall Patrick McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest or the Devil himself in The Witches of Eastwick . Nicholson has both the charisma and the acting chops to play such extreme personalities with unshakeable conviction. But Nicholson is also capable of working in a different register, one where everything turns inward and all of the explosive emoting for which he's best known seems to melt before your eyes. An early example was his depressive radio personality in The King of Marvin Gardens (reportedly one of the actor's favorite roles). Nicholson's reprise of his Chinatown detective J.J. Gittes in the flawed but fascinating The Two Jakes (which he also directed) has a quietly defeated quality that distinguishes the character from his earlier incarnation. But the greatest (to date) of all Nicholson's interior performances was in Alexander Payne's About Schmidt, loosely adapted from a novel by Louis Begley by Payne and Jim Taylor (who would go on to win Oscars for writing Sideways). Payne and Taylor reinvented Begley's characters and reimagined his plot, but they retained the basic notion of an older man evaluating his life, not liking what he sees and being unsure what to do about it. Accepting the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, Nicholson famously quipped, "I'm a little surprised. I thought we made a comedy!" One of About Schmidt's distinctive qualities, which is typical of Payne's work in general, is how it hovers unsteadily between pathos and ridicule. Depending on what one brings to the film, this tonal ambiguity may or may not be enjoyable, but there is no disputing Nicholson's achievement. Only a star of his magnitude could command the screen for two hours while playing someone so ineffectual.
About Schmidt was shot on film by the late James Glennon, who also shot Election for Payne and was the principal cinematographer for Deadwood, among other HBO credits. Made just before the advent of digital intermediates, the film was finished photochemically. There is enough telecine "wobble" in the image on Warner's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray to suggest that an older transfer was used, because such instability is typically absent from newer transfers. The wobble isn't severe, but it is noticeable. About Schmidt was first released on DVD in 2003, and despite the prejudice against older transfers, image captures from that era could be acceptably detailed, if the source materials were good enough. Wobble aside, the Blu-ray image is consistent with Payne's usual aesthetic, which eschews glamor or prettyness and favors natural light and realistic colors. Detail is good if not spectacular, though one cannot be certain whether that is a limitation in the transfer or a result of filtering to maintain Warner Home Video's target average bitrate (further discussed below). The detail is certainly good enough to bring out the unflattering closeups of Schmidt's grizzled face with his thinning hair frequently out of place (it's a vanity-free performance on Nicholson's part). June Squibb also looks worn, and Dermot Mulroney has rarely looked so unappealing. The interior of Kathy Bates's rundown post-hippie abode looks as random and unappealing as it must to someone of Schmidt's habitual neatness. The wedding with its formal attire and Schmidt's retirement party are among the best-looking scenes. The color palette is generally dull. Omaha in particular looks gray and cold. About Schmidt is an autumnal film, and the palette only warms when Schmidt enters foreign turf like Roberta Hertzel's home or the trailer of a cheerful couple he meets on the road (played by Harry Groener and Connie Ray). WHV continues their practice of aiming for a predetermined bitrate, regardless of the available space. About Schmidt has an average of 24.80 Mbps, despite the fact that only 31.7 GB of the BD-50 has been used. As in all these situations, there is no way to tell how much additional fine detail might have been retained if WHV had simply allowed the compressionist to use all of the space on the disc.
About Schmidt's 5.1 sound mix, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, is a restrained affair that uses the surrounds for ambient crowd noises and environmental sounds of the road and various locations that Schmidt visits. The dialogue is clear, as is Schmidt's crucial voiceover. An essential comic component is the classical score by Rolfe Kent (Up in the Air and the theme for Dexter), which is often cheerfully at odds with the downbeat events on screen.
Many consider About Schmidt to be Alexander Payne's finest work. I prefer Sideways, The Descendants and, in particular, Payne's brilliant contribution to Paris, je t'aime, which is entitled "14e arrondissement". (Nebraska is currently sitting in my to-be-watched pile.) Much depends, I suspect, on how close or far away one feels from Schmidt's predicament, and how comfortable one feels laughing at the train wreck of a family into which his daughter is marrying. Either way, Nicholson's performance is a career high point that commands your attention. Warner's Blu-ray is an adequate presentation, though nothing special. Certainly worth considering at its current bargain price.
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