Jack Nicholson is Warren Schmidt, an insurance retiree seeking meaning in his life.

A dark comedy with a sincere premise, About Schmidt is tastefully scripted with humor and some flare. But I was left largely unsatisfied by its lack of substance and its tame nature.

There is quite a voyage of discovery to be had here as 66 year-old Warren Schmidt retires, promptly loses his wife and embarks on a road trip to Colorado to attend his daughter's wedding. But the scenes of the road trip don't mean much, his daughter (Hope Davis) is a flat, uninteresting character and her fiance's family, while certainly off center, isn't strange enough to produce many laughs or generate much insight into Mr. Schmidt.

Nicholson's character has some funny moments, but is rather uneven and just not funny enough. In fact this can be said of the entire picture. The best laughs come courtesy of a series of letters Schmidt writes to Ndugu, his new charity-adopted son.

Many critics raved over the picture and it was one of the most anticipated films of the season. While clearly a quality picture, I can't help but wonder if anticipation got the best of these reviewers.

Directed by Alexander Payne.