Nebraska, 2013.
Directed by Alexander Payne.
Starring Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach, Mary Louise Wilson and Rance Howard.
SYNOPSIS:
An aging, booze-addled father makes the trip from Montana to Nebraska with his estranged son in order to claim a million dollar Mega Sweepstakes Marketing prize.
A scam letter from Mega Sweepstakes Marketing worth “$1 million” is the MacGuffin in Alexander Payne’s solemn dramedy Nebraska. It encourages senile OAP Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) to take a trip cross country from Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his ‘winnings’, and sends son David (Will Forte) along with him as a safety net.
Predictably, it’s a bonding experience on the cards for father and son. Atypically, Nebraska keeps the relationship between David and the faltering Woody mostly distant, providing plentiful helpings of bitter with its sweet. Nebraska makes no false promises about advancing age, as Alexander Payne never has – About Schmidt and The Descendants gave us death, while Sideways gave us divorce and midlife crises.
As David, Will Forte is regrettably bland; Bob Odenkirk, playing his smarmy older brother Ross, would arguably have been a better choice. Forte can’t seem to make that transition from comedic acting to more natural dramatic performing, unconvincing when he’s not delivering a gag. But even the touching Bruce Dern, bagging a notable role for the first time since we lost him somewhere around the 1970s, is second to director Payne and his unique grasp of the tedium of existence.
Black and white is an appropriate film stock for a filmmaker concerned with the plainness of modern life. Also because Nebraska is perhaps Payne’s bleakest film yet, pushing his darkest concerns to the fore: Mortality, failed relationships and aching loneliness all play a part. In grainy monochrome, his America has never looked so desolate. This is the man who made Hawaii look mundane in The Descendants, but Nebraska travels to the forgotten middle of America and highlights the endless brown fields and grey skies.
Minus the warm, sunny tones of Sideways or a charmer like George Clooney in the lead, Nebraska is harder to take. Everything is underpinned by the sense of a wasted existence; David is recently single and stuck in a dead-end job; Woody married young and stayed with probably the wrong woman; even Ross, the big star of the family, is merely a replacement anchor on a local news network. The tragedy of it all lends the comedy an uneasy vibe.
It leaves Nebraska perhaps a tad too dry and dour, but Payne’s voice is unmistakable. Both a champion and a critic of those US citizens lost in the cracks, Payne puts America, the real America, at the centre of all his work. And Nebraska can be laugh-out-loud funny – Dern is a hilarious grouch when he’s not breaking your heart in sombre silence. It’s just that you’re more likely to be left with some serious questions to ask about your life. It’s not a bad thing that Nebraska could convince you to make some changes.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brogan Morris – Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the young princes. Follow Brogan on Twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion.
Originally published November 19, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
