Movie Review #14

About a Boy (2002)
Directed by Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz
Screenplay by Peter Hedges and Chris Weitz & Paul Weitz
Based on the novel by Nick Hornby

Rating: 5.50/10.00 or ** 1/2 (out of 4)

About a Boy opened the same weekend as Attack of the Clones, Episode II (or V, depending on your preference) of the Star Wars series. Talk about a sure failure. Yet, About a Boy did not sneak past movie critics, several of which have put this film on their top ten lists of the year. My roommate rented it one day recently, and hearing what I had about the film, there was no way I was not going to see it. I had a general idea of what the film was about (As most of you know, or will soon know, this type of film generally does not appeal to me.), so I came into this film with more promise than usual.

Amazingly, this is only my second film I've seen starring Hugh Grant. The first was his very small role in The Remains of the Day (which I reviewed earlier this month), and he showed some promise in that film, at least in a supportive nature. Apparently, most people fall for the charm that Grant supposedly brings to his movies. I, however, am not one of those people. I can see where this attitude comes from, but it doesn't mean I follow it.

So with that said, it became quite apparent that I would not like this movie. About thirty minutes into it, I realized that I did not care for the main character (meaning I had no opinion of the main character). Whatsoever. And in films of these types, it is absolutely essential that you do.

To sum up About a Boy, I can give you the following three observations:
1) The movie treads the path that several had beforehand. It really adds nothing to the genre of romantic comedy or the meeting-someone-that-changes-your-life-forever type of film. A basic requirement I have to like films of this type is that the film has to be "different" or innovative. This film tries neither to be "different" nor innovative. As a result, boredom ensued.
2) There is no solid acting in this movie. To say that Hugh Grant's performance in this film was exceptional is just outright overexaggeration. I could have done just as well as he did in the film. It doesn't take much to be the character he is in the movie. Other characters are formulaic, stereotypical, or underused in the film.
3) The conclusion of the film is also formulaic. The ending of the film, which you could predict in about the first twenty minutes of the film, is just that: an ending. There's nothing really shocking, emotional, dramatic, comedic, etc. about it. The ending is boring. More importantly, it's the easy way out of the film. We see what we want to see. It would have been far more admirable to do something different (Of course, doing it differently has certain limitations of its own.).

About a Boy features Will (Grant), a 38-year-old teenager who basically does nothing. Literally nothing. He lives off the royalties of "Santa's Super Sleigh," a song his father made in the late 1950s. Therefore, he really doesn't have a need to do anything. Hence, he just sits around in his rather becoming home and occasionally goes on dates with pretty girls. He really has no long-term interest. Basically, he's looking for a little fun, nothing serious. He develops a plan one day to date single-mothers, whom he says are easier to break up with and less demanding (Apparently, Will is not a very educated man, either...). The plan falls apart when he by chance meets unpopular but likable Marcus (Nicholas Hoult), the young son of a friend of a single-mother Will is dating. Marcus, whose one need is to be liked by someone, takes a liking to Will immediately and sets out to make Will a part of his life. At one point, he even has Will go on a date with his depressed mother Fiona (Toni Collette). This plan falls apart immediately due to their extremely different lifestyles. So Marcus then eavesdrops on Will and soon comes over to his home to watch TV after school.

Will develops a liking to Marcus, but it takes quite a long time for him to admit it. So then after a Christmas dinner, a silly and poorly constructed music scene in which Will fears for Marcus' embarrassment, and a ploy involving Marcus as the "son" of Will as a mode of dating new girlfriend Rachel (Rachel Weisz), Will finally "caves in" and "grows up." And, thus, the film concludes.

Now, obviously, there's more to this film than that. And, in fact, there are some good scenes. The two funniest scenes of the film involve ducks. One includes the accidental death by bread collision, and the other involves a question involving ducks for dinner. Lindsey's Mum (Rosalind Knight) is drastically underused and adds most of the humor to the film (She's in one scene of the film.). Perhaps the line "Shake Your Ass...is he Moroccan?" leads me to conclude that. There is a good sequence involving Rachel, her son Ali (Augustus Prew), Marcus, and Will, in which we see the pains of being a single-mother to a thankless son. And the scene involving Fiona's attempt of suicide was appropriately dramatic, but not overly so.

However, most of the film is bland and at times a bit too silly to be funny. The disastrous date between Fiona and Will is presented in a stereotypical manner. The one addition to this is that Marcus witnesses it, but unfortunately, this adds little humor or little of anything to the scene. The Rachel sequence, as a whole, seemed more as a mode to add time to the movie than a sequesnce that serves a purpose to the film. Generally speaking, most of rest of the film is just not interesting to me.

Will is meant to be a likably flawed individual, who handles emotion badly and sometimes cruelly. His flaws supposedly make him appealing, according to Roger Ebert et al. Not to me. It was not easy for me to like him or to hate him. It was hard to attain any emotion whatsoever. Marcus is likable, but an undeservingly unpopular child is usually so. Fiona and Rachel only add support; they don't enhance emotion to the film.

I'm beating around the bush, so I'll just say it straight. The film is mired in unoriginality and lack of emotion. It seems to have struck a nerve with several people (perhaps who are more open to this type of film), but I was not one of them.

Movie Review #13

About Schmidt (2002)
Directed by Alexander Payne
Written by Jim Taylor & Alexander Payne
Based on the novel by Louis Begley

Rating: 7.75/10.00 or *** 1/2 (out of 4)

Jack Nicholson is an amazing story in the field of acting. He is well-known for his rigorous, in-your-face, ambitious, somewhat crazy, loud performances. Who could forget the line "Heeeeere's Johnny!" in The Shining? Or his bitingly humorous one-liners in As Good As It Gets? Or the line "You can't handle the truth!" in A Few Good Men?

His acting in these films is almost universally acclaimed as some of the best acting to "grace" the screens. There is no doubt that Nicholson was nearly flawless in these and other movies, but I began to feel that his performances were one-dimensional. Nicholson hadn't shown his versatility to me yet, so I didn't regard him as highly as I did other actors both past and present.

That is, until About Schmidt. Nicholson plays his calmest, quietest, most subtle role possibly ever in this touching film about a man trying to fulfill the human desire to be worthy in the world. Nicholson plays the title character with a touch that few, if any, others could master. This is Nicholson's best performance in years, quite possibly since One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. As Warren Schmidt, he displays a yearning that we all have felt. Who hasn't wondered from time to time if his/her life is worth something...to anybody? The key, however, is that never once does Nicholson overexaggerate his role. He is always the quiet man that Schmidt was meant to be (since the point would have been smothered by a more energetic character). Thus, we not only feel for the character; we empathize with him.

The film begins with quiet and rather drab shots of downtown Omaha (Residents of the city will note the "towering" bank under construction, which is now completed. Non-residents should note the lack of tall buildings.). The tone is immediately set here. The film, billed as a comedy, is far from it. About Schmidt has its funny and even light-hearted moments, but at its core, the movie is a drama (perhaps I can go as far as tragedy although that might be extreme). The quiet, drab tone that Omaha displays is further presented by Warren Schmidt, whose first scene involves his last day in the office. He just sits there waiting for the clock to strike five. Nothing to it, basically. Immediately, we see that his job has little meaning. It does not take long to realize that his life has little either.

We then see his retirement party. The party, quite appropriately slow and hushed, has one stirring moment. Schmidt's best friend Ray (played by the underused Len Cariou) gets up and tells all the "young ones" how rich Warren's life is. But the look on Nicholson's face says it all: Warren Schmidt is anything but rich in life.

And then Schmidt's retirement begins. He soon begins to question his choices in life. "Who is this woman?" He asks of his wife of 42 years. Helen (June Squibb) is a housewife that Schmidt has become thoroughly annoyed with after his long marriage. Everything is routine, little is said, and there is no excitement. It comes to the surprise of Warren that Helen asks him to eat breakfast on their 35-foot Winnebago Adventurer the first morning of his retirement. But then the breakfast itself is quiet and tense. Warren is a man of desperation, trying to cling on to what little he has left of meaning.

Helen suddenly dies one day, and Warren's life becomes much emptier. He begins to realize how lucky he was and how alone he now is. Just a further step into the realm of uselessness. So Warren acts on a final act of desperation: He gets on the Adventurer and drives.

Warren's daughter Jeannie (Hope Davis) is about to marry a con-man (of sorts) and a waterbed salesman by the name of Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney). Warren absolutely does not like Randall, and we can see why during the first scenes with Randall (just after Helen's death). Warren's mission on the road trip was to stop the marriage. Perhaps then he can find some worth out of his life. Jeannie lives in Denver with her fiance, and Warren plans to go there about a week before the wedding. However, Jeannie says she is too busy to see him until the weekend of the wedding. So, this allows Warren to take some excursions across the state of Nebraska and bordering Kansas.

There are several notable scenes during this period. Perhaps the best one involves the side trip to the University of Kansas to visit his old fraternity. He eats lunch there and discusses his life to college students. The empty look in their eyes is both humorous and saddening. Just a further reminder that Warren's life is dull and uninteresting. (Side note: Students at the University of Nebraska should recognize the fraternity. Yes, this was shot in Lincoln and not in Lawrence.) Other noteworthy scenes included tourist outings in Holdrege (his hometown) and Broken Bow. Just the right touches of humor and drama. Neither is suffocating to the other.

One scene that I did not like so much was the mobile trailer dinner with a family from Wisconsin. In it, Warren suddenly kisses the wife while the husband is shopping for more beer. I don't know whether this was supposed to be funny or tragic (or both), but it works on no level with me. I honestly just wish the scene ended with the line from the wife saying, "I see inside of you a sad man."

Warren then arrives in Denver to meet Randall's family and to attend and perhaps break up the wedding. We are introduced to the zealous Roberta Hertzel (played superbly by Kathy Bates), the mother of Jeannie's odd fiance. Bates makes her character engaging, troubled, and slightly repulsive all at the same time. It's the perfect fit for this character. If Warren had any doubts before about this marriage, they were confirmed now.

But, Warren does not stop the wedding. At the reception, Warren is allowed to speak, and Nicholson (perhaps using his personas in other films) subtlely makes the scene rather climatic. However, Warren just commends the newly wedded couple. Warren has failed, and he goes back home saying as much.

Which leads to the most important part of the film. Warren decides one day (early in the film) to give some money to a needy child. We learn that he is helping a six-year-old child from Tanzania named Ndugu. Ndugu is the source for Warren's ability to say what he feels. He sends many very open letters to the child through the film orated by Nicholson through the film. These voiceovers were cleverly used as we saw the development and the growing desperation of Warren Schmidt.

In the final scenes of the film, Warren hears back from Ndugu and his guardian. The result is a wonderfully constructed scene that concludes the film perfectly. In a word, it makes the film "touching." And that's all it needed to do.

One thing I really admire about the film is the use of scenery to create tone. Payne uses Nebraska's stereotype of dullness to his advantage. Throughout the film we see empty brown grasslands, semi-trailers with cattle caged inside, empty streets of gray and quiet. Through it all, however, Payne is still paying homage to his home state. I related to a number of scenes about Nebraska life in the film; I almost felt at home.

Payne also creates nice touches to his scenes. Perhaps viewers will notice the "Success" frame in the office of Warren's successor, the light-hearted humor of the Broken Bow scene, the closet containing Helen's clothes that at first appears heart-warming then becomes slightly sinister. Payne makes subtlety a form of directing mastery. And top-notch acting certainly helps.

About Schmidt is a wonderful film. It makes a point that few others would even dare attempt. It presents the point in a way that most other directors/actors could not even come close to pulling off. Although the film tends to drag at times, About Schmidt kept me involved for nearly all of the film. Not bad for such a low-key film. The acting, the directing touches, and the payoff at the conclusion of the film are three of the many reasons to watch this beautiful motion picture.