Nebraska

Rural America is dying.  Dementia is a sad fate for many seniors.  Family can be greedy.  Other than that, Nebraska is a joy.  Actually, it is an excellent film from Omaha native and Oscar winner Alexander Payne.  But be mentally prepared for it.

 

Nebraska (Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Stacy Keach) – I called Amour, the story of an elderly couple deteriorating into ill-health and dementia, a “depress-o-fest.”  Nebraska isn’t quite that deflating but the theme is similar.

Bruce Dern, a venerable actor who seems to have been playing a mad, old man for 20 years, stars as Woody Grant, a retired mechanic living in Billings, Montana.

His wife, Kate, is a familiar character.  She is brash, blunt, and seemingly sick and tired of Woody, his failing mind, and his seemingly meaningless existence.  Played by veteran actress, June Squibb, Kate is unfiltered.  Her mind is sharp and her tongue is sharper, whether talking about Woody, the behavior of her two sons, the boys who pursued her when she was young, or her feelings about other people.

The sons, played by Saturday Night Live veterans Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk, live less-than-perfect lives in Billings.  They love their parents, act dutifully, and struggle with dad’s growing mental deterioration and mom’s relentless criticism of him.

The film opens up with Woody walking along the interstate, heading to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he intends to collect the million dollars he is convinced he won.  After all, he has a letter telling him he won the money.  It’s the same kind of letter we have all received from one of those companies trying to sell us magazines.  But Woody is beyond the simple understanding that junk mail isn’t real.  He is watching his own life dim and wants to believe that the million dollars will buy him the two things he wants most: a new truck and the compressor a friend took from him many years earlier.

Woody is a stubborn coot and just won’t be deterred.  So his younger son, David (Forte), decides to take dad to Lincoln rather than fight it any more.  Anyway, it will allow him to spend some time with his father and away from home where his job is empty and his long-time girlfriend has moved out.

The rest of the movie is the equivalent of a buddy road flick.  They stop at Hawthorne, Nebraska, the family’s hometown. There, we encounter many long-ignored relatives, all figuratively dead, dying, or disturbed.  We also meet Ed Pegram (veteran Stacy Keach), Woody’s old friend, partner, and the guy who stole the compressor.  Ed’s a big man in town and a little man in life.

Nebraska is a rich and bleak story.  Shot in black and white and set in the winter, the landscapes are bare, the trees are leafless, and the people don’t smile.  The economic development people for Nebraska and Montana will not be showing this to business prospects.  Rural America is dying, aging before our eyes, according to director Alexander Payne, an Omaha native and the director of Nebraska-based films About Schmidt and Election.

Payne is a wonderful director and writer, having soared with Sideways, The Descendants, and the aforementioned films.  Winner of two Oscars for writing (Descendants and Sideways) and nominated for four others (Best Picture and Directing for Descendants, Director for Sideways, and writing for Election), Payne trusted acting and cinematography to carry Nebraska.

This is the excellent, feel-bad, art-house film of the year.  It is neither as depressing nor uplifting as it could have been.  And that is how I felt about it as a film.  It wasn’t as good or as poignant as it could have been.  It is well worth your time and your money but be in the right mood for bleak, stark, and raw.

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