What do you do after you retire? What happens if the life you picked turns out to be not so valuable after all? And what about your life will live on after you die? These questions are asked by Warren Schmidt, the 66-year-old character played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson in "About Schmidt," opening in theaters Friday.

With a sagging face and a bad comb-over, Nicholson's character is no spring chicken, and one immediately asks, is Jack Nicholson really that old? His plump, white-haired wife only serves to reinforce this notion. And the answer is actually yes -- Nicholson turns 66 in April. Parallel age, however, is not what makes Nicholson's portrayal of Schmidt so convincing. It is with a quiet and sad intimacy that Nicholson paints an unquestionably genuine Warren Schmidt.

Schmidt is a newly retired, former insurance executive who after devoting his life to his job, has to ask himself, what did this all mean? Retirement begins to force Schmidt to contemplate the grim reality of his life during quiet days of daytime television and crossword puzzles.

When his wife suddenly dies, Schmidt finds himself alone and fearing the prospect that his life was not what he thought it was or what he thought it was going to be. Now he must face an overwhelming sense of regret and failure for the decisions he made and a desire to do something worthwhile.

Schmidt sets out on a voyage to Colorado from his hometown in Nebraska in a newly purchased mobile home, originally intended for after-retirement traveling with his wife. He is hell-bent on breaking up the impending marriage between his adult daughter, Jeannie (Hope Davis), whom he never really took the time to know and a balding waterbed salesman, Randall Hertzel (Dermot Mulroney). Kathy Bates plays Randall's mother, Roberta, a free-lovin' divorcee who leads her dysfunctional yet affectionate family with unconventional means.

With some time to spare, Schmidt embarks on a bit of sight-seeing through Nebraska, visiting places from his youth. Along the way he confides diary fashion in one-way correspondence with Ndugu, a 6-year-old Tanzanian boy he sponsors after making a rare and spontaneous decision to 'pick up the phone' after seeing a television commercial for a philanthropic organization.

Schmidt is a fish out of water when arriving in Denver for the approaching nuptials, spending time with Roberta and her family who are the absolute antithesis to Schmidt. The family members, including Schmidt, do share obvious imperfections, or rather, very real human qualities. These imperfections seem to illuminate some kind of universal truth -- and how they choose to embrace their humanness is what separates them from each other.

Nicholson is one of Hollywood's greatest actors and this movie is among his very best. Kathy Bates also makes a brave performance, baring both body and soul and Dermot Mulroney does an about face from his leading man character in "My Best Friend's Wedding" to a dim yet sensitive small-town man sporting a unique balding mullet.

"About Schmidt" is not about old people and retirement. It is a movie about, well, Schmidt -- the choices he makes, how these decisions affect those around him and the irony and humor that exist through it all. The striking dichotomy in the film is the hilarity of Schmidt's situations alongside an underlying deep sadness. You can't help but laugh out loud at Schmidt's depressingly funny state of affairs, all the while hoping he may find some sort of peace in the end.

"About Schmidt" opens Fri., Jan. 3 at Landmark's Oriental Theatre.