HE CAN HANDLE THE TRUTH JACK NICHOLSON GETS THE CHANCE TO ACT HIS AGE, WARTS AND ALL, IN 'ABOUT SCHMIDT'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

About two minutes into ``About Schmidt,'' you know you're in for something a little different.

We've just seen Jack Nicholson sitting by himself in a barren office, portraying an old man (Jack? Old?) counting down the final seconds of a career that has spanned his entire adult life.

Next we see Nicholson's character, an insurance actuary named Warren Schmidt, at his retirement party. Seated next to him is an old woman. At first you think, ``How nice. Schmidt's mother has come to her son's retirement party.''

Then it hits you. That's not Schmidt's mother. That's his wife.

And that in and of itself makes ``About Schmidt'' different from any movie Nicholson has made in his long career. Or as Nicholson puts it: ``All you have to do is show that picture. Here's a woman my age. And that, for the most part, is what people do in life. There is the uniqueness to the image. I don't think it's so much a comment on what I've done before, but rather what is done here. This movie is about humanity.''

``About Schmidt's'' humanity is of the Alexander Payne variety, which means that it is of the sort that simultaneously skewers and salutes the quirks that are the norms of everyday people. Payne has directed two previous films, ``Citizen Ruth'' and ``Election,'' both of which he co- wrote with Jim Taylor and neither of which had the kind of high profile that ``Schmidt'' possesses, courtesy of Nicholson.

Payne's films have been critically praised but little-seen, probably because of the unsparing way they portray people. ``Citizen Ruth'' cast a satirical eye toward both sides of the abortion-rights debate, while ``Election'' had Reese Witherspoon, in her star-making role, playing an overachieving high-school student who would stop at nothing - and sleep with anybody - to become class president.

In his films, all of which have been set in his hometown of Omaha, Neb., Payne is an equal-opportunity offender, refusing to take sides as he plumbs people's darkest impulses and hypocrisies. Some see him as a misanthrope, but not Nicholson, who was eager to work with the 41-year-old director.

``My view about Alex is that there's not a mean bone in his body,'' Nicholson says. ``He sees it, but I always hear him, after he makes the observation, kind of chuckling and saying, 'Well, God love you.' When you do a movie that's not pandering to what you imagine people want to see, that's a real opportunity. And this movie has it all - human problems, human aspirations, human frailties. You know, if I wasn't in it myself, I'd say it was quite beautiful.''

What's the difference?

The movie finds Nicholson's character at a crossroads in his life. He's a man who has lost many of the things that gave him meaning, so he begins to wonder if he's made any kind of difference in his 66 years on the planet. To find out, Schmidt hops in his RV to revisit places from his past en route to talk his 30-something daughter (Hope Davis) out of marrying a man he considers beneath her.

If you've seen the movie's one-sheet poster, you know Nicholson has given up any trace of vanity to play Schmidt. ``When I look in the mirror and see the wrinkles around my eyes and the sagging skin on my neck and the hair in my ears and the veins on my ankles, I can't believe it's really me,'' Schmidt says. And throughout the movie, the camera catches - and emphasizes - every imperfection in the 66-year-old Nicholson's face and body.

It's not so much a radical reinvention as it is Payne's commitment to show things the way they are. And it's not just Nicholson. Davis wears unflattering, high-waisted pants that she says ``make my ass look huge.'' And, most famously, Kathy Bates, playing the mother of Davis' mullet-headed fiance, disrobes on camera for a nude dip in a hot tub with Nicholson.

``Perfection is boring,'' Davis says. ``I always find it monotonous to got to a movie where everyone always looks well-groomed and perfect. Those movies have nothing to say. People who look real are so much more endearing than people who appear perfect. You can get involved with them.''

Adds Bates: ``I knew people would be talking about that hot tub scene because you don't see that often in the movies.''

Well, you do, just not with a woman who looks like Bates, who, of course, looks more like the typical American woman than, say, Michelle Pfeiffer (Nicholson's leading lady in two prior films). And that's the point, Payne says. He didn't cast 67-year-old June Squibb as Nicholson's wife for shock value. It never occurred to him that it was going to be a big deal; it was simply appropriate for his character. (Davis says that when she told friends she was in the movie, the common reaction was, ``Oh, are you playing Jack's girlfriend?'')

Says Payne, ``With my films, I've been trying to re-create what I see in real life, not the supposed real life you see in most Hollywood movies. That's one reason they're set in Omaha. And it's why the movies have characters that aren't always likable, aren't always perfect and don't have an ending that wraps things, resolves or redeems. Life doesn't work that way.''

A calculated risk

Nicholson's understated performance won accolades when ``About Schmidt'' premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and he is considered a sure bet to nab his 12th Oscar nomination. But he still remembers having doubts about the whole enterprise during the early days of the shoot, wondering if anyone would want to watch a movie about a retired insurance actuary's crisis of identity.

``The only direction I got was, 'Well, don't smile too much,' and that was consistent pretty much with the way Alexander guided us in the movie,'' Nicholson says. ``When you make it, you hope there's a strong sensibility that one responds to, a command, a poise. You can't say this in a boardroom in Hollywood because you'd be immediately dismissed, but since we were in Omaha, the thought was, 'Let's do it right.' ''

That thinking extended to the film's ending, when Schmidt ponders if he has indeed made a difference. We won't give anything away; instead, we'll let Payne express his feelings on Hollywood-style redemptive endings.

``Filmmakers are always affirming it, saying, 'Yes, you make a difference,'' he says. ``I remember feeling so cheated by that ending of 'Dead Poets Society' when they all stand up on their desks. Please. It's saying, 'Really in their hearts, people aren't conformists,' when quite the opposite is true.''

``If I had directed 'Dead Poets Society,' it wouldn't have made half the money it made,'' Payne continues. ``Because at the end, he should go in, they all look at him, they feel guilty for what they've done, you want one of them to stand on their desk, none of them does, and he leaves, and you're left with a more chilling feeling.

``That, to me, says the same idea, that we should be nonconformists. The way it's done, you like it and you forget about it. I think it's a little more important to make movies that are challenging at the end. You've got to think about it more and come up with your own response.''

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) you don't know Jack 

Nicholson acts his age - and then some - in `About Schmidt'

(2 -- 3) Jack Nicholson, above, and Kathy Bates, below, embrace - rather than hide - their age.

(4) Director Alexander Payne on the set of ``About Schmidt.''

(5) Jack Nicholson