Faith in Film — About Schmidt

Tonight we're beginning our final two weeks together looking at the idea of "Purpose." This week, we look at a secular film in "About Schmidt"

Discussion Questions:
1. Did this movie work for you, why or why not?

2. Have you ever felt lost in your life? If so, why?

3. Have you ever felt like your life lacks purpose?

4. What do you do to add meaning to your life?

Thoughts:

This film from director Alexander Payne was largely over looked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Jack Nicholson was nominated as Best Actor and should have won for his performance, which is one of the finest of his career. In the last decade it was another of Payne’s films, the 2004 comedy “Sideways,” that earned praise and landed on the Best of the Decade lists. For my money, this film is funnier, more engrossing, and has a lot more heart. That’s why I put it on the list of my favorite films of the first decade of the 21st Century.

The film centers on an aging insurance executive named Warren Schmidt (Nicholson) just as he enters retirement. He lived his whole life by a rigid schedule, including the life with his wife and his daughter. When he retires, Schmidt begins to wonder what his life has really meant and if anything he’s done with his time on Earth will have a lasting impact. Revelations about his wife’s past and the upcoming wedding of his daughter cast a further shadow on how Schmidt perceives his life. He goes on a soul searching, cross-country trip where he tries to reconcile what he knows of himself and his life as he attempts to answer the question of what impact, if any, his life has had on the world.

I think a lot of people resonate with Schmidt. It's easy to look back on their life and wonder what kind of difference they made. We work hard at our jobs, to build our families, and to contribute to society, but we can't get our fulfillment from that. Schmidt experiences that. He sees that his professional role is easily filled and the company moves on without him. He can't really be everything he wants to be to his daughter, either. But eventually, in perhaps the most beautiful way of this type of film, he realizes how he's been used to touch a life half a world away.

It doesn't matter what we do each day, so long as we're doing it for the right reasons. Colossians 3:23 says, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters." Our fulfillment of purpose isn't earthly, it's eternal. When we keep our eye on that truth, it's amazing how we can see God using us to fulfill His purposes.