Watched two films this weekend: One was The Departed, the other was About Smidt. I enjoyed the latter but was very bored with The Departed. There was not one likeable character in this bleak sordid story and it seemed just another one of those films with little men, high on testosterone, running around waving a gun and over-using the F-word.
The dialogue was appallingly poor and it was pathetic to see how these male characters needed to be artificially reinforced with ‘effing and blinding’ to a tedious extent. I was disappointed as I really like most other films by Scorcese. The Departed was a witless and graceless exercise in male posturing. Perhaps it’s because I’m a man myself but I’m getting fed up with the vast number of films crowded with loud men portraying utterly predictable behaviour and totally lacking any interesting female characters. What a bore.
Much more to my liking was About Schmidt, starring Jack Nicholson. Beautifully filmed, slowly and elegantly told, this story of a man losing his wife shortly after retiring from work and faced with a complete nincompoop for a impending son-in-law was moving and insightful.
Black humour and little touches of light-hearted brilliance made this film something unusual. Nicholson’s role was testament to his versatile acting skills. Kathy Bates was convincing as the overly sensual mother of the nincompoop. I’ve never wanted a Winnebago and certainly do not want one after seeing About Schmidt, but I laughed as Nicholson’s character drove it around town as if it were just an ordinary car rather than a ridiculously sized monster-caravan.
A human story where the acting didn’t get in the way of the story, About Schmidt is an ultimately uplifting story about life, love and loss. Nice one..
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