"Schmidt Happens"

Hazlitt

You are right of course. We are only sharing our opinions, nothing more.
In fact our very opinions are somewhat suspect. I once read an analyst who said that sixty to eighty percent of our thoughts and verbalizations involve projection! (so much for objective opinion!)

But, fools walk in... so I'll opine a little further.

It was not joyous for Schmidt at the wedding. He eventually did the right thing -a loving thing- for his daughter but it was hard....after all his new son-in-law was still a nincompoop!
Schmidt's despair continued -his life still looked bleak. He didn't have an epiphany and reform himself....BUT...he did begin a process of reconciling with his life past, present and future and he was moving forward incrimentally. Hence the scene on the top of the motorhome where he forgives his wife and (if I remember right ) apologizes to her, and the scene with the picture from his foster child.

Hazlitt, I have nothing to add to the discussion. I am only popping in to say that you are not alone in your interpretation. I'm with you.

Yes, when Schmidt saw those boxes of his works sitting in the garage, he knew his contributions were worthless, and the sacrifices he made for it became a reality. When one learns how useless his life in his job and at home, despair is the only outcome. That woman in the trailer had it right; he was a sad, sad, man. c.i.

schmidt
Jjorge and Hazlett, you have both interpreted the movie with considerable insight, but we must acknowledge that your differences reflect to a large extent your own personalities and life experiences (this applies to me as well, of course). Interpretation is largely projection (not completely, of course, but to a significant extent). I mentioned Hazlett's Iron Maiden metaphor for Schmidt's business career to a retired, and very intellectually honest businessman (now a writer of published novels). He did not appreciate it, arguing instead that Schmidt may have achieved a degree of fulfillment from his business career.

Hazlitt, I don't know what your interpretation of normal is, but I would not put Schmidt in the category of not being normal. The theme of the film was about how conformity fails on nearly every level.

He was not a social conformist, but a societal conformist: He made the money to keep his wife well-tended to and the daughter was able to have riding lessons growing up. As long as all the energy was put into the family then it was acceptable.

What was unacceptable in theMidwestern-Family-oriented-conformity was his writing out a tiny check for 20 dollars or so to sponsor an Afican boy. So he does it secretly. Sure, his letters to Ngudu are inappropriate but Schmidt has merely subscribed to another American tradition: He's going to get some value from it, and so Ngudu becomes his therapist.

Also, I would never describe Ngudu as a "deprived and disembodied" child. I believe intuitively that Schmidt took one look at that boy and knew he had had more riches in his 6yrs. then Schmidt had ever had in his lifetime.

Gala, What do you mean when you say Ngudu had more riches in his 6 years of life? It's just that I've been to Tanzania, and the "riches" that you speak of escapes me. c.i.

It is remarkable that so many of us have strong feelings about this film. All of us who have spent long years in the corporate world saw in Warren Schmidt at least something that reminded us of our own situation, or maybe we saw something that we didn't want to admit to. A part of our agreed upon conformity (I like that word , Gala) is that we are all supposed to believe that the system is perfect. In any event, it was hard to be indifferent to this movie.

Thanks to all of you who have helped to enlighten me about Schmidt and his frame of mind.

c.i., I don't mean riches in the material sense, rather the simplicity and richness of Ngudu's origins. Ngudu's future is unknown, but at that point in the film he is still innocent and wide-eyed. Ngudu lives in the moment, as evidenced by the painting he sends Schmidt. Schmidt, on the other hand is reviewing his life, and as awkward as this act is, he is still coming to some understanding of who he is and where he comes from.

Gala, I understood you didn't mean riches in the material sense. As for Ngudu's future, it's a mixed bag. They live a very simple life, and the struggles are many. Trying to maintain a regular diet is a struggle. Most do not live "comfortable" or long lives, with the life expectancy in most of Africa at half of ours. Their schools lack the proper teaching materials. The paper and crayon that Ngudu used was probably donated by an American tourist and/or donation. On the other hand, as a child of six, he probably lacks the understanding of how difficult their life is - not having any basis of comparison. Also that he got a sponsor is a big deal. I think the impact on Schmidt is much greater, because he has somebody he started to communicate his inner-most feelings with. Something he lacked with his wife and daughter. I felt that the last scene was very telling, because Schmidt finally showed some of his inner emotions. c.i.

c.i., I undertand your viewpoint, and I agree that Ngudu's road ahead will be a mixed bag. Then again, won't everyones? Alot of the conversation about this movie has been taken from a "have" and "have not" perspective. He is automatically pitied, not just because of his parentless circumstance, but by his skin color. All this is very interesting, especially in light of Schmidt adopting him and reversing Ngudu's role to be the wise one. Is it a white-American reflex to look at other cultures that do not share the same values or skin color and to immediatley take pity on them as less fortunate?

I thought Ngudu was in good shape, he was being cared for and getting schooled. I believe the condescending stance of pity is one taken out of fear. We don't know what is going on in the minds of those who have less then we have, but by appearences we look at them as inferior because they don't have the "advantages" we have. Alot of good it did Schmidt, who comparatively speaking, had everything. Yet, in the end he was totally alone, abandoned by his family at a time of his life when he hoped to feel surrounded by them. God Bless America.

Gala, Actually, I felt more condescending pity for Schmidt. He sacrificed everything that should have had value to any individual; his wife and daughter. He didn't communicate or spend quality time with them. His goal was to provide them with the material comforts of a middle class family by sacrificing his energies to work. When you say that "Ngudu's future is a mixed bag, but isn't everyone's," the BIG different is the opportunities we have in this country vs Tanzania. I doubt very much that people who viewed this movie concerned themselves with "skin color." Also, I do not look upon any human as being inferior to me, and it has been my life's philosophy "to treat all living things with respect and dignity." I abhor bigotry and discrimination in any form. c.i.

i don't know c.i., I don't think of Schmidt as a pititable guy. Afterall, his wife was pretty close to being a beast and his daughter a wounded whiner. The man was surrounded by phoniness, as witnessed by the upstart who took over his job. I don't think the solution for his sadness is as simple as his spending more time with his family. Schmidt seemed, by nature, a loner, even in retirement there was not much enthusiasm on his part to head of in the RV with his wife. And, when the wife dies, it is only then that he sees his daughter as the suitable replacement.


I'm always amazed at the arrogance of people who have achieved some success in their lives and also a bit of self-worth can erase those achievments by judging others. That was my opinion of the woman in the trailer, she was forward in a way with him that Shmidt, in turn, was forward with her. Unfortunately, Schmidts actions were deemed socially unacceptable, whereas this silly woman who invaded his privacy in a different way was merely being "insightful." The trailer scene was ridiculous, and the only thing keeping Schmidt there through their painstakingly dull stories was the beer, and the reality that their association was fleeting.

One more thing, Hope Davis, the daughter is one of my favorite actresses. If this had been the first role I'd ever seen her in I would not have thought twice about her. If you are interested in seeing her play a more in depth character there are two films I recommend:

Next Stop Wonderland, and one of my all time favorites, The Day Trippers

Gala

I saw 'About Schmidt' for the second time Sunday P.M.
I can't agree with some of your apparent conclusions about the characters in it.

How is his wife 'pretty close to being a beast?'
She WAS bossy it seems, but in her way she loved her husband and daughter. In the scene in the motor home she has prepared a nice breakfast for Warren, she is excited about the adventures she hopes to have with him in their motor home and says something like: 'We're going to have wonderful times!'
Later, the daughter (in her angry outburst at Warren) contrasts her mother's devotion to him with his stinginess in selecting a çheap coffin. Warren's wife was also, it seems, intimately involved with her daughter in planning the wedding.
It takes a little effort though, to see Helen (the wife) in a positive light. I think the director wants us to initially see her through Warren's eyes as bossy and looking horrible with that cream smeared on her face. She is obese. Warren dislikes her little habits...he even criticizes the smell of her! He also says, 'Who is that old woman living in my house?' Warren sees the sagging skin and the lines in his own face too....but it's easier to for him to horrified at 'that old woman' than at his own aging.
Familiarity breeds contempt they say, and Warren has been married to her for forty-two years. There are many many divorces in this country, they are not that hard to obtain, but Warren and Helen stayed together. I don't think it was all for negative reasons.
While they appear to have lived a banal bourgeois existence, I suspect it is more distasteful to us than it was to them. We don't see their lives' pleasures and compensations because the film is focused on Schmidt's discontent.

When Warren finds Helen dead we see genuine grief. We see his feelings for her again when he is on top of the motor home and forgives her (for her infidelity of years before) and asks her forgiveness for his defficiencies as a husband.

I can't agree that Jeannie, the daughter, is a whiner. She loses her mother just before her wedding. She is coping with that, with all the stresses of planning and arranging a typical wedding and with a father who, at the very last minute, is trying to pull the rug out from under the wedding. We don't really know what all her issues might be. She is thirty something and getting married. Had she been worried before meeting her fiancee' that she'd never find someone?
What DOES come across to me is that she really loves her young man and is determined to go forward with her wedding despite her father's upsetting last minute exhortations.

I agree with you that Warren was something of a loner. I also agree that the woman in the campground was inappropriately intrusive.
To me she somewhat shares responsibility for what happened because of what she stirred up in Warren. As far as that camp ground visit is concerned however, I don't think it was merely the beer that kept him there. It was his loneliness. While the couple and their pictures etc. might be boring to you or I, Warren, in his loneliness seemed to be enjoying himself. He had been alone a great deal, after all, since his wife died.


Gala, I was puzzled by several aspects of your comments on Schmidt and the foster child. First, the idea that Schmidt's sponsorship of the child was somehow a secret, and that it was:

'Unacceptable in the mid-western family-oriented conformity for Schmidt to sponsor the child.'

? Why do you think that?

As far as his 'Getting some value for it' by 'Using...(the child)... as his therapist', I think that's a bit of a stretch. First, Warren's letters to the child are completely ludicrous. It's not really credible that a college educated person would be so oblivious as to think a six year old -any six year old -much less a poor one in a distant African village setting,
would understand the things Warren was telling him. I think the director wanted, by exaggeration, to emphasize the ignorance that we have of foreign cultures and he was using the occasion for comic relief. Why else would Warren say, 'Well I know you must want to go and cash this check and buy some food' and 'When you go to college you should pledge a fraternity'. Those and other comments
gave the audience something to laugh about in a very grim movie.

If you don't mind my saying it, you also seem to romanticize the life of the foster child, and then criticize the pitying of him as 'condescending'.
C.I. is more realistic I think, in pointing out the harsh realities of life for millions of poor Africans. IMO Schmidt had a compassionate impulse to help someone when he saw the television ad for ChildReach. Later he came to see his action as perhaps one of the most important things he had done in his life.

jjorge,

I think that Gala's description of Schmidt's wife and daughter has touched on something I found objectionable about the movie, and that is its profound misogyny. Every woman in the movie was depicted as either physically repulsive, a whiner (the perfect word for the Hope Davis character, in my opinion), a ballbuster, or some combination of all those things. To the extent you saw the female characters in another light, I think that may have been caused by your tendency to think the best of people (an admirable quality, in most situations) getting the better of your acumen as a film critic.

Of course, all the women in the film are seen through Schmidt's eyes. It might be interesting to see another movie, told from the point of view of the wife or daughter, about what it was like to live with Schmidt as a husband or father. Schmidt might not come across as quite such a sympathetic character in that version.

bree

Point taken.
As I reflect on it, my comments on the wife's positive qualities were based more on my inference of what she must have been like, rather than on how the film ACTUALLY portrayed her.

I still reject the label of whiner for the daughter. To me she is a sympathetic character. She is under a LOT of stress much of it provided by her father's misguided attempt to 'save' her from her marriage to what's-his-name. her angry reaction to Warren on the two occasions when he tried to talk her out of the marriage were, IMO, quite understandable. It's true she 'lost it' at Kathy Bates house when she saw Warren incapacitated with a stiff neck and unable to help with essential last minute tasks. Can't we be a little understanding of that?

In recent years I have been close to several young women planning their weddings. (one was my daughter)
I have been struck by the enormous amount of work and detail that goes into planning a wedding and how stressful it is. The bulk of the work, and stress, falls on the shoulders of the bride and very little on the groom.

Your observation about how the female characters are all treated negatively is insightful. I was almost ready to agree that it reached the point of being blatantly misogynistic, until I reflected on the various male characters. They come off better but are still a pretty sorry lot.

Yes, it would be fascinating to see the story through the eyes of the wife and daughter. I'm sure it would look very different.

Most things in life looks different from a different perspective, especially when viewed from the husband or wife. That should be a foregone conclusion, but we are talking 'About Schmidt,' aren't we? All the warts and imperfections we see in Warren's wife and daughter are seen from the interactions of that moment we are privy to see. The relationship between Warren and his wife may seem odd to some, but for many that is the "normal" outcrop of having lived "that" kind of life. Warren was rarely home to interact with his wife, so he accommodates his wife by becoming a "yes" husband. Not too strange. As for his daughter, Warren didn't have a true father relationship with her, so under the circumstances her reactions to his intrusions and demands were unrealistic. I can understand the stress his daughter was experiencing in planning the wedding. I still don't believe it was 'overreaction' on her part. c.i.

jjorge, yes Schmidt did eventually come around to true grief over the death of his wife, but it was only after his image of himself as a loyal provider had been shattered when he learns of her affair years earlier with his close friend.

Until this fact is revealed we see the wife as a one-dimensional nag, whose function is to manage the home and family life . I was particularly struck by the RV scene, by how clueless she is to his lack of enthusiasm over her and their impending travels.

She had, just like Schmidt, done everything right within her designated role: She maintained the home to perfection, she was a mother, she kept up appearences and social engagements, and she above all cooked, and cleaned for Schmidt. Though she may have been bitter about this role, she still performed it, just as Schmidt went out into the world and earned the money. And just like Schmidt got screwed in the end by the job he dutifully performed for x amount of years, his wife recieved the same careless treatment by Schmidt as well. And we don't know whether or not she deserved it. The only difference is, an aging woman is relegated to the "hag" role, while the aging man is bestowed the luxury of becoming "wise."

And Schmidt does become wise. His unconventional method of using Ngudu as a sounding board in many respects gave him a base from which to move. As a result he takes a detour on his travels to his daughters wedding, all the while refelcting on what he has found in his letters to Ngudu.

I do not believe I am gloryifiying Ngudus life. I beleive in many ways you and c.i. take an attitude of pity that is unworthy of people who come from poverty. We know nothing of Ngudus plight except that he is now in good hands and judging by the picture we see of him in the film he is a healthy happy 6 yr old who knows enough to send a beautiful drawing of what appears to be himself holding Schmidt's hand in the sunshine. I say it's therapy because Schmidt is not being judged (for once in his life) for sending these letters. No, Ngudu does not have the degree or the title, but just because he does not have the certification of a medical board does not exclude him from being able to bring some light into someone elses world.

I'm going to stop for now, out of courtesy- bree, thanks for your input...

Gala, Whoa there, kimo sabe. I take pity on who? FYI, we come from poverty and discrimination. I have friends all around this world, and some are poor and some not so poor. I understand their situation from first hand observation, realizing that their lives does not provide for much opportunity. Sad? Darn rights. I don't feel any human as being pitiful or beneath respect and dignity. Please stop labeling people you do not know. c.i.

Gala

Yes, Schmidt was probably moved by pity or compassion. Isn't that what usually MOVES us to help someone in need? Don't the advertisements that seek to recruit 'foster parents'
seek to activate our capacity for compassion? Is that bad?
Was it: "Slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress"? (as in 2. below) or was it simple compassion with no admixture of condescension? I don't know. But I know at least that he did something objectively good.
What would you have thought if Schmidt saw the Childreach ad
and just flipped the channel?
There are some people who are so concerned with having the purest of motives for what they do that they never get around to doing anything.
No matter how you look at it Schmidt has done something good for someone else.

Finally, I assume you didn't seek to offend so I will try not to feel offended by your remarks.

(from Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
Main Entry: 1pity
Pronunciation: 'pi-tE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural pit·ies
Etymology: Middle English pite, from Old French pité, from Latin pietat-, pietas piety, pity, from pius pious
Date: 13th century
1 a : sympathetic sorrow for one suffering, distressed, or unhappy b : capacity to feel pity
2 : something to be regretted <it's a pity you can't go>
synonyms PITY, COMPASSION, COMMISERATION, CONDOLENCE, SYMPATHY mean the act or capacity for sharing the painful feelings of another. PITY implies tender or sometimes slightly contemptuous sorrow for one in misery or distress <felt pity for the captives>. COMPASSION implies pity coupled with an urgent desire to aid or to spare <treats the homeless with great compassion>. COMMISERATION suggests pity expressed outwardly in exclamations, tears, or words of comfort <murmurs of commiseration filled the loser's headquarters>. CONDOLENCE applies chiefly to formal expression of grief to one who has suffered loss <expressed their condolences to the widow>. SYMPATHY often suggests a tender concern but can also imply a power to enter into another's emotional experience of any sort <went to my best friend for sympathy> <in sympathy with her desire to locate her natural parents>.