Jack Nicholson has built a career on playing lunatics, misfits and colourful characters, but rarely has he had the opportunity to portray someone as unexceptional as Warren Schmidt and he does an exceptionally good job in this endearing tragicomedy from director Alexander Payne. 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 for the lonely, alienated Schmidt, 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.

A recently retired man embarks on a journey to his estranged daughter's wedding, only to discover more about himself and life than he ever expected.