Review: Nebraska

Semi-senile old man Woody (Bruce Dern) and his nice-guy son David (Will Forte) travel across the Midwest to collect a sweepstakes prize that doesn’t exist. Nebraska is, quite simply, a road movie.

Woody Grant, whose neck is completely covered in beard hair, is a laconic old git with a history of alcoholism and family neglect. Prone to delusion, the cantankerous fool is tricked by a cheap marketing flyer into believing that he has won a million dollars. Nothing will prevent him from trying to walk 750 miles to collect the big bucks himself, so his son eventually acts as chauffer. He knows it’s a delusion, but sees an opportunity to connect with his old man who loved the sauce more than his boys. Predictably, over the course of the film this does happen, as an inebriated accident force the pair to stay at Woody’s hometown and a family reunion is organised. David learns more about his distant father – how he used to be generous and popular, and had a traumatic war experience.

There is nothing wildly novel about Nebraska. From the opening black-and-white film footage of railroad tracks we know that this is a road movie: Paris, Texas; It Happened One Night; Little Miss Sunshine. Stagnant shots of fields, dilapidated barns and forgotten diners establish a fading American landscape as the set. The viewing experience is much like watching drizzle for an afternoon – depressing. There is little music, sparse dialogue, and silent family get-togethers. We feel ourselves being sucked into the world of people who have given up joy in their monotonous lives. Their relationships have crumbled, they ponder lost machinery, and they wear fleeces. Nebraska draws you in to where you don’t want to be.

Of course, the dough isn’t really important – the prize could have been a budgerigar because we know that it is non-existent, and maybe Woody does as well. Where Nebraska really packs a punch is in the emotion department. An irredeemably dislikeable Scrooge tenders pathetically as he looks around his old house, in rooms where he grew up and his siblings died. Understanding his past allows his family to understand his present. The relationships are important to us because, by the end, we care. This, I believe, is due to the acting.

Bruce Dern, a man of mixed career recognition, uses all his melancholy abilities to portray this forlorn old timer who treads precariously between sympathetic and punchable. Also worthy of mention is Will Forte, whose dependable presence allows the relationship to take off. His delivery seems strange though – the talking pace, high-rise terminals and post-speech pauses are straight out of a generic U.S. comedy (Forte was in Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock and American Dad). Similarly, Woody’s wife Kate (June Squibb) is almost a stand-up. But this comedic element serves Nebraska well. Far from undermining the seriousness, the black humour prevents any saccharine sentimentality. The cynical observations enhance the feeling that the film knows what and where it is, as well as making it enjoyable. I challenge you not to chuckle at the fat, goateed hick losers who sit around all day laughing at others’ stupidity, or Woody’s identical brothers who occasionally mutter to each other about broken cars.

It is also a neat study of small-town America. We see the drawbacks: bored retirees watching traffic; obese redneck ex-cons sneering in camouflage; a Bad Day at Black Rock bully who sings karaoke Elvis in the Coors-drenched bars. But we also see the positives: the wholesome values of the simple pioneers who literally built their town and whose fraternal civic conscience kept it together. This America is what Bruce Springsteen exists to wail about. Payne has used this setting, which could be a million one-horse towns across the States, to tease out emotions not in abundance on a Hollywood set.

Nebraska is realism worshipper Alexander Payne’s first film since Oscar-nominated The Descendants. A melancholy portrayal of human relations, people dealing with the endless march of time, and the ability to forgive, this film deserves the same respect.