In a way, 'About Schmidt' is the flip-side of 'It’s a Wonderful Life'
Video:
"About Schmidt" is presented in widescreen anamorphic color (1.85:1 aspect ratio), and the picture is sufficiently sharp. At times, the clarity is lost on intricately patterened shirts, but there is nothing about the picture that is striking or noticeably deficient—this, perhaps, because the palette is deliberately overcast in order to mirror the recently retired Schmidt´s inner "weather."
Audio:
There are three audio options: DTS Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and Stereo Surround, but it would take a better ear than mine to distinguish them. Perhaps it´s because dialogue, not sound effects, carries the film, and there´s little in the way of ambient noise or rear-speaker action. But again, as with the picture, I had no complaints, nor did I find myself bowled over by the sound. Spoken languages are English and Spanish, with
Extras:
About extras: they´re aren´t many. Except for the original trailers and DVD-Rom content accessible only to computers running Windows 98SE or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (and I don´t know about you, but I´ve always found DVD-Rom links to be token at best) there are only nine deleted scenes and five "short films." The scenes are thankfully introduced (via silent title card notes) with frame shots from the movie to show where the scene was intended to fit, and they´re actually rather substantial as deleted scenes go. One scene is especially interesting, because it´s a radical departure from the rest of the film, and was jettisoned because Payne pronounced it "too film-schooly" (and it WAS). Some of the deleted scenes go off into areas of character development that we just don´t get in the film, while two others show radical storylines involving police that were ultimately abandoned. As for the "short films," they´re really five variations on a theme: lengthy title-sequence establishing shots of Omaha featuring the Woodmen Tower from various angles in the same spot in each frame. They´ll hold appeal for film students and self-taught, would-be Spielbergs who may find it interesting to compare them with the one eventually used in the film, or to glimpse the breadth of research and reconnaissance footage shot before the film crew ever rolled into Omaha, but the average viewer will find them a pretty dull extra.
Bottom Line:
"About Schmidt" is a good, but not great film. The cover of this DVD looks like a mug shot, though the only crime that Warren Schmidt has committed was that he wasted his life in devotion to a company that doesn´t even miss him after he´s gone. In a way, "About Schmidt" is the flip-side of "It´s a Wonderful Life." Like George Bailey, Schmidt takes stock of his life, but comes to realize that nothing he did mattered one iota. And friends? He´s perhaps shocked to discover that he doesn´t have any . . . or close family, for that matter. Unlike the comic Clarence from the Frank Capra classic, Schmidt´s angel, Ndugu, doesn´t deliver until the film´s final frame, and it doesn´t seem enough to compensate for a 123-minute downer with only sporadic laughs— especially not with Nicholson´s shell-shocked portrayal and a pacing that´s so Payne-fully slow it could qualify for subtitles. It´s shelved under "comedy," but "About Schmidt" won´t seem very funny to the millions of people who take stock of their own lives after watching the film and conclude that they too haven´t met basic expectations for themselves or realized any of their dreams.
"About Schmidt" is presented in widescreen anamorphic color (1.85:1 aspect ratio), and the picture is sufficiently sharp. At times, the clarity is lost on intricately patterened shirts, but there is nothing about the picture that is striking or noticeably deficient—this, perhaps, because the palette is deliberately overcast in order to mirror the recently retired Schmidt´s inner "weather."
Audio:
There are three audio options: DTS Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and Stereo Surround, but it would take a better ear than mine to distinguish them. Perhaps it´s because dialogue, not sound effects, carries the film, and there´s little in the way of ambient noise or rear-speaker action. But again, as with the picture, I had no complaints, nor did I find myself bowled over by the sound. Spoken languages are English and Spanish, with
Extras:
About extras: they´re aren´t many. Except for the original trailers and DVD-Rom content accessible only to computers running Windows 98SE or higher or Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher (and I don´t know about you, but I´ve always found DVD-Rom links to be token at best) there are only nine deleted scenes and five "short films." The scenes are thankfully introduced (via silent title card notes) with frame shots from the movie to show where the scene was intended to fit, and they´re actually rather substantial as deleted scenes go. One scene is especially interesting, because it´s a radical departure from the rest of the film, and was jettisoned because Payne pronounced it "too film-schooly" (and it WAS). Some of the deleted scenes go off into areas of character development that we just don´t get in the film, while two others show radical storylines involving police that were ultimately abandoned. As for the "short films," they´re really five variations on a theme: lengthy title-sequence establishing shots of Omaha featuring the Woodmen Tower from various angles in the same spot in each frame. They´ll hold appeal for film students and self-taught, would-be Spielbergs who may find it interesting to compare them with the one eventually used in the film, or to glimpse the breadth of research and reconnaissance footage shot before the film crew ever rolled into Omaha, but the average viewer will find them a pretty dull extra.
Bottom Line:
"About Schmidt" is a good, but not great film. The cover of this DVD looks like a mug shot, though the only crime that Warren Schmidt has committed was that he wasted his life in devotion to a company that doesn´t even miss him after he´s gone. In a way, "About Schmidt" is the flip-side of "It´s a Wonderful Life." Like George Bailey, Schmidt takes stock of his life, but comes to realize that nothing he did mattered one iota. And friends? He´s perhaps shocked to discover that he doesn´t have any . . . or close family, for that matter. Unlike the comic Clarence from the Frank Capra classic, Schmidt´s angel, Ndugu, doesn´t deliver until the film´s final frame, and it doesn´t seem enough to compensate for a 123-minute downer with only sporadic laughs— especially not with Nicholson´s shell-shocked portrayal and a pacing that´s so Payne-fully slow it could qualify for subtitles. It´s shelved under "comedy," but "About Schmidt" won´t seem very funny to the millions of people who take stock of their own lives after watching the film and conclude that they too haven´t met basic expectations for themselves or realized any of their dreams.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]11333[/release]