I thought I'd take a break from reviewing white-male-self-destruction videos to give a little time to this great flick. Warning: I cried at the end. Alot.

I went to see this film because I like Jack, and I like Bates. Little did I know that Bates has a full-on nude scene in this film...but hey it was a nice change from the usual overly perfect tits and ass. The other actors and actresses in AS do their part to create a believable story about "average" people. Average? Normal? I dunno. The insightful scriptwriting and intelligent interpretation of the script by the players make this film a very serious assessment of the current human condition.

Schmidt is a guy who devoted himself to his job at the expense of his family. When his wife dies shortly after his retirement, Schmidt is forced to realize that he's basically a robot. As we follow him on his journey to find any small shred of meaningful living, we are brought into a relatively familiar "soul searching" story.

There are subtle differences however...the main one being Schmidt's correspondance with Ndugo, a poor African child that he has sponsored through one of those hard-to-watch "please help the world" commercials narrated by Angela Lansbury. As Schmidt makes his journey from Nebraska (where he lives) to Colorado (where his estranged daughter lives), the story is narrated by his letters to Ndugo.

The fact that Schmidt has never been all that close to his wife and daughter becomes more and more clear with every letter to Ndugo. On a larger scale, America's isolationist tendencies become more and more illustrated. Schmidt has dedicated himself to the idealism of post WW2 America, passing off all that has happened since that idealism has faded as lame. But when his career ends, he is forced to face his own obsolescence. Couple that with his wife's unexpected death and the poor guy is a broke dick, unable to even clean up after himself.

Schmidt travels in his giant mobile home in search of someone to save him. He attends his daughter's wedding even though he can't stand the man she's marrying or the family she's marrying into. In the end, he declares himself a faliure: All he ever did was work in an insurance company, he wasn't good enough to his wife, he neglected his daughter, and he couldn't stop her wedding. What else to do but die?

But Schmidt receives a letter from Africa. One of the nuns who work with the children writes him a letter with a crayon-drawing from Ndugo enclosed. Schmidt finds meaning in his life.

On the surface, this whole premise is a little hokey...."help the needy". But let's count some chickens: This is a Nicholson vehicle. All actors and actresses involved play self-effacing roles. The futility of daily life and death is thrown up on the screen with no apologies and no Hollywood slickness. And what is the ultimate validation? Helping the needy. In a subtle and moving way. Rock on motherfucker, rock on.