The latest film from Alexander
Payne, NEBRASKA, is the director’s latest chapter in his ever-growing bible of
human frailty stories; a bible which in recent years has produced the
Oscar-darlings SIDEWAYS (2004) and last year’s THE DESCENDANTS. In this
chapter, Payne teams up with an oft-forgotten screen legend for a road trip
through the heartland of America and the heart of an old man.
Woody (Bruce Dern) is an 80-something, confused and crotchety
old man who is convinced that he has won a million dollars in a Publishers
Clearing House-type sweepstakes. Unable to drive he begins the long hike on
foot from Montana to Nebraska, despite the objections of his youngest son David
(Will Forte) and his wife Kate (June Squibb).
NEBRRAKSA sets itself up as a run-of-the-mill road trip
flick coupled with a father-and-son bonding story. Once David and Woody hit the
road and get detoured to the small town where Woody grew up, things take a
different and welcome turn. As word gets out over Woody’s imminent yet unlikely
fortune, family members and old friends begin to show up with their hands out,
and through all this Woody’s life story begins to unfold. David gets to know
his father by seeing and hearing his past, and NEBRASKA becomes more about life
in general than one man’s desperate attempt to claim his winnings. There are no
grand statements or definitive answers given about how we should be living our
lives; NEBRASKA is simply one intimate look at the way one person has lived
his.
Director Alexander Payne does remarkable work with his main character.
Woody is unlikeable at first; he is mean and miserable, answers questions in
one word answers, and can’t understand any person’s feelings of love and/or
attachment. But what makes Woody so loveable is Payne basically turning him
into a little kid. Woody is so sincere in
his want to travel to Nebraska that you can’t help but to hope that there just
may be a pot of gold for him. Woody may be an angry old fart, but his sincerity
is as genuine as a little kid who has just been promised a trip to the toy
store; they don’t forget and they don’t let go.
Payne has put together a beautiful looking film. Shot in
glorious black and white during a time of year when the trees are leaf-less and
the farmlands are bare, the film presents a stark and stunning look at the landscape.
Payne also pays close attention to, without being distracting, the simple lives
that inhabit the small towns in the farmlands which are one street long.
Bruce Dern proves his acting chops are still as sharp as
ever. Dern, who turned 77 this year, is an actor who has worked alongside the
likes of John Wayne and Alfred Hitchcock, and here he turns in a performance
which makes you believe that his old friends are still there on set with him.
Dern is funny and miserable, but at the same time pulls your heart out with a
single, tragic-looking glance. It’s a performance that he has been working up
to his entire career. Will Forte shows his inexperience through the film; never
really coming close to matching Dern or giving enough to make us care. June
Squibb (who turned 84 this year) turns in a fantastic performance as the
equally cantankerous wife, and Stacy Keach turns in a great peformance as Woody’s
old partner/villain looking to cash in on the supposed fortune. A lot of the
cast is composed of real-life locals, which adds to the great sense of realism
to the film.
The finale doesn’t go for any bombastic speeches or teary-eyed
embraces, but instead takes things slow and easy just as it would have played
out in real life. There is still a great amount of heart to be had, making
NEBRASKA a nice place to visit, and a pleasure to live in.
BOTTOM LINE: See it
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