Payne Should Not Have Changed the Setting
I really don't care that Payne is from Nebraska, He should have kept the New York/Long Island setting. IMNSHO, it is simply not a midwestern story. Good film, but not as good as it could have been.
shareIMNSHO, it is simply not a midwestern story.
Why do you think the story is not plausible with the change of setting to the midwest? In many ways, Schmidt's attitudes are quite common in the midwest: conservative, straight-laced, decent but narrow. As a matter of fact, you can find people similar to Warren Schmidt just about anywhere in the US. share
Not knowing that this was originally set in NY, I thought the Midwest setting was perfect. I've lived in NYC and I've also lived in the Midwest, and (at least the way it was executed here) it seemed perfect. For those of you who haven't had the experience of living in Nebraska, Montana, the Dakotas, there is an uneasy air of quiet desperation. Slaughterhouse trucks cart cattle back & forth endlessly (something I'm glad the director showed), and whether you're a vegetarian or not you can't help but see a dreary metaphor for our own cattle-like existence in society, working for greater powers & surviving only to be disposed of. Omaha was a brilliant setting to depict that same disposable quality of Schmidt's life. I'm sure the NY setting worked well too (the anonymity & oblivion of being in a big city I'm guessing?), but the Midwest really resonated with me.
shareIf anything, Schmidt's mindset reminds me more of typical midwestern middle class than of the typical urban New Yorker.
I haven't read the book, but from what I understand the film doesn't follow the novel very closely at all. Apparently, a major theme in the novel is that Schmidt is prejudiced towards Jews and non-whites (so he resents Randall Herzl for being Jewish, as opposed to for being a loser and an idiot), and he finds redemption through an affair with a hispanic woman. OP (or anyone else who has read the book), correct me if I'm wrong and have been misinformed.
If that's the case, I'm glad that Payne took that aspect out of the film as well, so that we focus on Schmidt's search for meaning and his questioning of what it means to be "successful," as opposed to yet another morality tale about the evils of prejudice.
Whoa, I'm also glad they took those themes out of the film. Sounds like too much to pack into 125 mins without detracting from the main theme, like you said, Schmidt's search for meaning. Also if Payne had kept the bigotry aspect it might've made Schmidt less likable, or at least cause detachment with the audience. It's tough to pull it off... Clint Eastwood's excellent "Grand Turino" comes to mind. Anyway, I do want to read the book About Schmidt to see what I'm missing, but as far as the standalone film's impact, I think it accomplished everything it set out to do.
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