Rated:

In director Alexander Payne's endearing tragi-comedy, Jack Nicholson plays a man who feels disconnected from his own life, a mood brought on by forced retirement, the sudden death of his wife and his daughter's impending marriage to a man he regards as a loser. His road trip to her wedding is the start of a very offbeat journey, as a subdued, almost glum Nicholson gets to grips with new beginnings.

It's funnier than it sounds as the film's quirky approach to this late-life crisis is typified by Schmidt's hilarious outpouring of pent-up bitterness in his letters to a Tanzanian orphan that he has sponsored. While this is not a movie of great dramatic or comic peaks, the star's restrained, poignant performance nevertheless extracts meaning from the smallest moments.