Limelight: About Jack By Lubna Abdel Aziz He is back! Jack, that is, as in the one and only Oscar winning anti-hero, Nicholson, Hollywood's favourite bad boy and one of its hottest most versatile superstars. Dazzling audiences on both sides of the ocean, he is in his usual top form in his newest vehicle About Schmidt. As the doleful, depressed retiree, Warren Schmidt, he has mesmerised both critics and public with another of his stellar performances that have established him as a screen icon. Once again he hits with a punch and a jab knocking us out with his powerful creativity leaving us clueless, speechless, breathless. Frisky and spirited at 65, life is "as good as it gets" for this legendary actor who has just received his sixth Golden Globe, the second most distinguished award Hollywood offers its élite, and if the Globe is won, can Oscar be far behind? After 11 Academy nominations for 'Mr Cool', it is everyone's bet that he is headed for a cool dozen. 'His Coolness', as he is often referred to, creates a sensation wherever he goes. He rewards his faithful with his usual ready wit and tomfoolery, and naturally his Cheshire cat-like smirk. He jests, he jokes, he scowls, sending them off ecstatic, wild with glee. On and off screen, his all-powerful aura surrounds you -- you smile when you ought to frown, you chuckle when you ought to groan. There is just no other like Jack; easy, irreverent, funny, but lest you laugh too hard, there is danger lurking behind. He never wearies or irritates as some eccentrics do. He is having too good a time. Superbly naturalistic, he possesses a unique individuality, a sort of distinction that makes you glow with the warmth, or shiver with the cold of each performance. This beloved original, known to his public by his first name, has appeared in 56 films, starring in 37, and making every appearance unforgettable. Nothing is beyond his scope or talent. Able and agile, he pours himself into his roles producing a kaleidoscope of wonderful characters that tease and titillate, leaving a stamp that is never erased, since his early triumph in Easy Rider (1969), detective Jake in Chinatown (1969), callous Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men (1998), the werewolf in Wolf (1994), the devil who seems to be laughing from his grave in The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and the unforgettable "Joker" in Batman (1989), his highest grossing film, which netted him alone a cool $50 million. His pièce de résistance however, will always be Melvyn Udall, the obsessive-compulsive romance writer who hates women, dogs, homosexuals; will not step on lines on the pavement, locks his door five times, washes his hands with boiling water and two fresh bars of soap. A rogue and a rascal, he immerses himself so fully, so truthfully, you will prefer the rogue to the standard hero every time. In his master scene he professes to his lady love, "you make me want to be a better man", a line delivered with such pathos while straining every muscle on his intensely expressive face. Do you laugh or cry? Described as an "American masterpiece", About Schmidt is a new adventure for this versatile talent, presenting an unfamiliar Nicholson to the public. Pounds heavier, years older, unshaven, hair messed up: "It's almost like what I go through when I look in the mirror every morning." He seems to have swallowed himself in order to reproduce Warren Schmidt. Gone are the flamboyant mannerisms and cheeky wickedness that delight and tickle, replaced by "a goofy, beautiful, mesmerising King Lear". There is a laugh at moments most poignant, and a smile at its darkest depths. Another Oscar statuette may soon join the three already on his mantlepiece for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1976), Terms of Endearment (1983) and As Good As it Gets (1997). His art is not only a matter of style, it is a matter of passion, vast and endless. The style is left to take care of itself. He treats each character with a measure of reverence, receiving reverence in return. Stranger than the characters he plays, is the story of the man himself. For all intents and purposes, Jack Nicholson does not exist. His birth remains an enigma. Born at St Vincent's Hospital in New York City, no record of this event can be found. It is likely he was registered under a cousin's name. His mother June Nicholson, a scintillating young dancer, fell in love with another showman, Donald Furcillo of New Jersey, and became pregnant with Jack. They were married in 1936 at Elkton, Maryland, a town notorious for its quickie marriages. Don, a Catholic, still technically married to another, though separated for years, feared prosecution for bigamy. He bribed a Reverend Schaffer not to file the marriage certificate until the statutes of limitations expire years later. The news of June's pregnancy was devastating to her parents, Ethel and John Nicholson, who severed their daughter's relationship with Don, claimed the baby as their own, allowing June to pursue her dancing career. Jack was raised believing his mother was his sister and his grandparents his parents. The conspiracy of silence only ended when Nicholson was 37 years old. In 1974, while working with Mike Nichols on The Fortune, Jack received a call from a reporter from his hometown paper the Asbury Park Press who dropped the bombshell that June was his mother and Ethel his grandmother. His father was a stranger named Donald Furcillo Rose. Truth is indeed a tale stranger than fiction. "How much would novels gain by the exchange!" But then what About Schmidt, this new Nicholson tour de force that has the cinema world up and cheering for Mr Cool? Warren Schmidt just retired as an actuary in a life insurance company. His wife of 42 years suddenly dies, and just as suddenly he realises he had always despised her. Moreover, his daughter is about to marry an underachiever waterbed salesman in Denver who wears a slimy grin and a silly pony tail. Schmidt decides to take a cross-country trip in his new motor home, to bridge the gap between himself and his daughter, and hopefully dissuade her from marrying the goop he so dislikes. During this darkly comic and painful odyssey, Warren takes an introspective look into his inner self and shares his life with an unexpected friend, a six year-old Tanzanian orphan whom he sponsors for $22 a month from an organisation that advertises through television. His long letters to little Ngudu are filled with a lifetime of things unsaid. Warren Schmidt for the first time begins an inward journey "which gives you an emotional whiplash, and you'll be glad you went along for the ride". Perfectly pitched between comedy and tragedy, About Schmidt is a tribute, not only to Jack Nicholson's craft, but to his legend. Based on the novel by Louis Begley, under the direction of Alexander Payne, Jack shines again. Payne's first instruction to his leading man was to "leave Jack Nicholson home". The great actor obliged. His public loves their devilish Jack, they admire his shining qualities and forgive his vices and indulgences, liaisons, romances, starlets, and the occasional fist-fight. A desired guest everywhere, Nicholson found himself seated next to Vladimir Putin at the 23rd Moscow Film Festival where he accompanied his 2001 film The Pledge. When the press asked what they discussed, Nicholson claimed he wanted Putin to be producer of his next film. I would not put it past him. Nothing Jack does, no matter how outrageous, should be surprising. He possesses that mercurial elfish quality that's a little shady, a little dangerous and very, very naughty -- and that is just how we like him. After all there are only A Few Good Men left, and Jack in any role is As Good As it Gets!
