Upon retirement from his lifelong position with an insurance company, Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) has trouble figuring out just what to do. Reluctantly, he agrees to the plan of his overbearing wife Helen (June Squibb) that they should travel around the country together in a mobile home.
When Helen dies suddenly, however, he is rendered alone for the first time in years. Terrified of this independence, he decides to spend time with his daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis), who is preparing to get married. Then, when she rejects his affections "Cats in the Cradle"-style, he is forced to rely exclusively on himself.
Such begins the journey of Schmidt, who drives off by himself in that same mobile home, searching for meaning while touring the Midwest. He narrates the odyssey through letters written to Ndugu, a Tanzanian boy Schmidt has financially "adopted" through a humanitarian aid organization.
The aimless journey takes Schmidt back to his roots: the house he was born in, the college he went to, etc.; but he is unable to reconcile these mutable environments with the ones he remembers from childhood. Depressed from loneliness and a lack of purpose, Schmidt slowly comes to realize how dreadfully insignificant his entire life has been.
Did I mention it's a comedy?
The incredible thing about Payne and Taylor as satirists is the way they get us to laugh at our own misery. And not the kind of misery you see depicted in most movies: the easy-to-spot sort that comes after death or a breakup. The misery of Schmidt is the intangible kind that Kansas was singing about in "Dust in the Wind." The film's humor tends to arise out of Schmidt's numerous attempts to justify his existence to a universe perpetually indifferent to his plight.
The supporting cast also provides their fair share of the laughs, particularly Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney) -- the merrily vacuous boob Schmidt's daughter is going to marry against his wishes -- and Roberta, the family's acid-tongued matriarch (Kathy Bates). With as much fun as the filmmakers poke at these often-obnoxious individuals, they still treat them with enough dignity that they remain characters and not caricatures.
The humor in Payne's films is vital, because it provides us enough emotional distance that we won't get too bummed out. Fair warning, though: you will probably get somewhat bummed out anyway. Payne-Taylor's worldview is a lot of things, but it isn't sunny, which is the point-of-view most popular movies enjoy. But if you're looking for a movie replete with truth, humor, and high emotion, Schmidt'll serve you just fine. And if you do like it, I'll see you at Sideways this weekend.
