MovieChat Forums > About Schmidt (2003) Discussion > Schmidt starting his own business

Schmidt starting his own business

posted 9 years ago by Edward_de_Vere
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In one of his early letters to Ndugu, Schmidt laments that he wanted/tried to start his own business and had dreams of making it big, but that his wife "wouldn't allow it" (meaning that she wouldn't let him take the risk of starting out on his own, as opposed to taking a safe but unrewarding job with Woodman).

I wonder whether Warren's version of the story is actually true, i.e. was he once a would-be ambitious entrepreneur whose spirit was crushed by a nagging wife, or was this just another lie he told himself to ease the pain of a (mostly self-inflicted) failed life? We certainly see Warren deluding himself about a lot of other things - such as his claim that his daughter has "a position of some importance at an electronics firm," when in fact she's just a shipping office clerk.

[–] johnston.scot 9 years ago

I'm going with the "another lie." There may be a bit of truth in it, but it's not the whole story.

The disconnect between reality as described in Schmidt's voiceovers from the letters and what we actually see is a repeated motif (the one you mention is one of the better examples of it).

[–] Edward_de_Vere 9 years ago

The disconnect between reality as described in Schmidt's voiceovers from the letters and what we actually see is a repeated motif (the one you mention is one of the better examples of it).

You get the impression that Schmidt isn't just lying to Ndugu, but that he's repeated these lies to himself so many times that he actually thinks that what he's saying is true.