About Schmidt Pics

Warren Schmidt is retiring from his position as an actuary with an insurance company in Omaha, Nebraska. Schmidt is given an impersonal retirement dinner. Schmidt finds it hard to adjust to his new life and feels useless. One evening, 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 rambling letters.

He visits his young successor's (who to add insult to injury is only in his late 20's to early 30's) office to offer his help, but the offer is politely declined. As he leaves the building, Schmidt sees the contents and files of his office in the basement, set out for garbage collectors.

He describes to Ndugu his longtime alienation from his wife, who suddenly dies from a blood clot in her brain just after his retirement and their purchase of a Winnebago motor home. Friends arrive, along with his only daughter Jeannie and her fiancé Randall Hertzel from Denver. They console him at the funeral, but Jeannie later berates him for taking his wife for granted, buying her a cheap casket. He asks her to move back for a while to take care of him, but she refuses. Meanwhile, Randall tries to entice him into a pyramid scheme.

Schmidt feels that Randall, a waterbed salesman, is unsuited to his daughter. At the airport, Randall recommends the book When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner to Schmidt. After the couple leaves, Schmidt is alone.

He stops showering, is shown sleeping in front of the television, and going outside with a coat over pajamas to load up on frozen foods in the supermarket. In a closet he discovers some hidden love letters disclosing his wife's long-ago affair with a mutual friend. Schmidt angrily confronts him.

In order to find some control in his life, he decides to take a journey alone in his new Winnebago to see his daughter and convince her not to marry. He tells Jeannie he's headed out early to the wedding; she makes it clear she doesn't want him there until right before the ceremony.

Schmidt visits places from his past, including his hometown and college campus. His childhood home has been replaced by a tire shop. While at a trailer campground, he is a dinner guest of a friendly and sympathetic couple, but leaves in terror and embarrassment after he makes a pass at the wife. He later forgives and apologizes to his late wife.

Schmidt arrives in Denver and stays at the home of Randall's mother. He wakes after a night in a water bed with severe pain. He meets the fiancé's family and again tries unsuccessfully to dissuade Jeannie from the marriage. Schmidt flees after the mother makes a pass at him in a hot tub. Schmidt attends the wedding and delivers a kind speech at the dinner, hiding his disapproval, although the (angry) subtext of what he's saying isn't lost on Jeannie.

Upon returning home to Omaha, his narrative to the orphan Ndugu questions what he has accomplished in life. Schmidt laments that he will soon be dead, that his life has made no difference to anyone and that eventually it will be as if he has never existed at all.

A pile of mail is waiting for him inside the empty house. Schmidt opens a letter from Tanzania. It is from a nun, who writes that Ndugu is illiterate but appreciates Schmidt's letters and financial support very much. A painting drawn by Ndugu is

About Schmidt is a 2002 American comedy-drama film directed by Alexander Payne, starring Jack Nicholson in the title role. It is very loosely based on the 1996 novel of the same title by Louis Begley. Many of the scenes were filmed on location, especially in Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado. According to the special features on the DVD, a number of non-professional local residents appeared in the film, portraying their real-life professions. The actual Woodmen of the World headquarters building in Omaha was used in the film, and Jack Nicholson was made an honorary member of the company during filming.