About Schmidt (2002) on Netflix
Warren Schmidt retires from an Omaha insurance company and sponsors Ndugu Umbo, a Tanzanian boy he writes to. He sets out in a motor home for Denver and his daughter Jeannie's wedding.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb7.2/10137,552 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes85%
Trailer
Plot summary
For decades Warren Schmidt has worked as an actuary at an Omaha life insurance company. Retirement leaves him feeling useless, and at his retirement dinner he ducks out to the bar alone. He sees a television advertisement for Childreach, a sponsorship program for African children, and begins writing letters to a small Tanzanian boy, Ndugu Umbo. He has long been alienated from Helen, his wife, and from Jeannie, his daughter, who arrives from Denver with her fiancé, Randall Hertzel, a waterbed salesman. Schmidt buys a Winnebago Adventurer and sets out to drive to Denver for Jeannie's wedding, visiting places from his past along the way.
Cast
- Mark Venhuizenas Duncan Hertzel
Show all 20 cast
- Jill Andersonas Bridesmaid Reading St. Paul
- Vaughan Wenzelas Man Mourning Helen
- Judith Kathryn Hartas Woman Mourning Helen
- Robert Kemas Priest in Omaha
- Melissa Hannaas Dairy Queen Employee
- Tung Haas Frat Kid
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about About Schmidt (2002)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Alexander Payne's script was originally an unrelated screenplay written years before Louis Begley's novel was published; titled The Coward, it was about "an old guy who retires, and realizes how much he's wasted his life", pitched as "The Graduate at age sixty-five", and Universal Pictures rejected it in 1991.
- After Begley's novel appeared in 1996 Payne combined his script with its plot, making the film an adaptation; he changed a great deal, yet Begley wrote in a New York Times essay that "my most important themes were treated with great intelligence and sensitivity" and called it "a gem of original filmmaking."
- Before agreeing to the nude hot tub scene, Kathy Bates hashed out with director Payne exactly what part of her anatomy would be shown: "I battled to make myself comfortable, and he battled to get what he wanted. We met in the middle."
- Upon accepting his Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, Nicholson told the room: "I'm a little surprised. I thought we made a comedy."
- Filming took place in several Nebraska cities, including Omaha, Nebraska City, Minden, Kearney and Lincoln, and Omaha was chosen because it was where Payne grew up.
