YOURS VERY TRULY, WARREN SCHMIDT

ABOUT SCHMIDT opens in Warren Schmidt's (Jack Nicholson) deserted office at Woodmen Insurance on the evening of his retirement. The pathologically impassive, expressionless gaze Schmidt trains on the clock as the second hand ticks toward five o' clock denotes a man ending a prison sentence rather than someone about to embark on the twilight of their years. As the rest of the film unfolds, it becomes clear that Schmidt has spent his entire life watching time pass by with the same resigned attitude, a poor player who has done little strutting and fretting during his hour upon the stage, with a striking chance to finally make amends.

Imagine if "American Beauty's" Lester Burnham hadn't A: been murdered; or C: assumed the personal transformation that coincides with his death, but had just played out the rest of his life unhappily like a shnook. He may have turned out something like Warren Schmidt, the sixty six year old insurance actuary pondering the significance of his existence in director Alexander Payne's wonderful, funny, and deeply moving comedy-drama. Following the sudden death of his "beloved" wife, Helen, Schmidt takes stock of his circumstances and decides to hump his colossal, thirty five foot Winnebago from Omaha, Nebraska to Denver, Colorado to prevent his estranged daughter from marrying an absolute geek. Schmidt's panhandle odyssey becomes a metaphor for the fleeting (And often cruel) nature of history and time, and the possibility for change. Written by Payne and script partner Jim Taylor, ABOUT SCHMIDT proclaims the pair to be one of the most creatively lucrative partnerships currently working in film, following the hilarious satire of "Citizen Ruth" and "Election," and a more deadpan, true blue American variation on the works of Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson.

Jack Nicholson delivers a towering performance of subtle, heartbreaking magnitude as the washed up, titular character, which should have earned the iconoclastic actor his fourth Oscar. In many ways the role is a real departure for the actor--a role in which all traces of the larger than life easy rider, all that Jack, are bravely masked behind a performance of unhinged emotional vulnerability, warmth and hokeyness. It's sometimes hard to believe that the svelte, handsome, hard-boiled romantic hero of "Chinatown" is really beginning to push on as Schmidt confronts his mortality, but part of the beauty and strength of ABOUT SCHMIDT is its theme of looking back, of quiet reflection, of having no regrets, and Nicholson projects this indelibly.

Kathy Bates is a scream in a brief but unforgettable appearance as Schmidt's future in-law Roberta. Rare is the actor who can steal scenes from Jack Nicholson, but Bates is frank and lethally funny and every bit as bare and revealing as Nicholson is, and adds a vital edginess to last quarter to film. Watch for her hot tub sequence alongside Jack--it's destined to be a classic and uncomfortably lovely.

Hope Davis lends a strong, emotional tangent as Schmidt's daughter, Jeannie, who it's clear never shared a deep relationship with him. And Delmot Mulroney is pitch perfect goofy and almost unrecognizable in a ghastly mullet as Jeannie's pea brained but kind hearted fiance, Randall, who Schmidt endeavors to keep Jeannie from marrying.

As aforementioned working from an excellent script with Jim Taylor, ABOUT SCHMIDT manages clever and insightful ways to probe the heart of Schmidt's existential woes, none more inspired or affective than the series of letters (Read in voice over) Schmidt sends to a Tanzanian foster child named Ndugu (A name that illicits more welcome gasps of laughter and charm as Nicholson utters it) who he sponsors through a program called Child Reach. And it is through this stroke of intuitive narration that the heart of ABOUT SCHMIDT begins to emerge. Through these letters viewers are introduced to Schmidt's history and discover through grandfather colloquialisms his hang ups and pressing insecurities. Most importantly, one gets the impression that this is the first time in Schmidt's life that he has ever expressed himself more openly, or shared such intimate contact with anyone, including his own family. Film's final image of Schmidt weeping tears of joy to discover that somewhere in the world someone has acknowledged his importance is genuinely heartbreaking. Alexander Payne's ABOUT SCHMIDT sails to this moving final conclusion: that a human being's life cannot be ultimately fulfilling if it hasn't touched the person that matters most--that of the human being doing the soul searching himself.