Nebraska

"Nebraska" offers viewers an unstinting view of some very unpleasant things: extreme decrepitude, boundless stupidity, greed and ignorance. There is also very deep, and very painful, love on display in this portrait of an embittered working class eking out a meaningless existence in a dysfunctional and remote place. "Nebraska" oscillates between cynicism and schmaltz, pulling off a wondrous kind of emotional alchemy that few films aspire to, let alone attain.

All of the acting is first rate, though the characterizations are rather broadly drawn. Will Forte plays a dutiful, sensitive, repressed son with seemingly unlimited patience for the eccentricities of those around him. He's the perfect foil for Bruce Dern's semi-catatonic, alcoholic ramblings (both verbal and spatial). June Squibb serves up hilarious venom to spice up the mix.

There were scenes in the movie that so perfectly captured the narrow, soulless, deadening ethos so prevalent in small-town America that I could hardly stand to watch them. It was almost as if the tire stores, bars, gas stations and motels of every desolate corner of America were rolled up into one set of visuals here, captured in stunning black and white cinematography.

I highly recommend "Nebraska."

I saw the movie at the Helsinki International Film Festival. It tells a story about an old man who is certain that he has won a million dollars and wants to get to Nebraska to collect it. His family is sure that it is a hoax but his son chooses to drive him there so that the thing wouldn't bother his dad anymore.

Everything about the movie is very low key and the pacing is quite slow. This comes from the choice of shooting it in black and white, style of acting, and the locations and events depicted in the film. For long periods, I found it a little hard to get immersed into the events on the screen and empathize with the characters. I kept thinking that the movie repeats what I did not like about Alexander Payne's earlier work About Schmidt. But then somehow the movie started to grow on me. I still feel there is almost weird resemblance to the road trip and family reunion Jack Nicholson's character goes through in About Schmidt but Nebraska has merits of its own. For one, the characters are quite well written. Even the supporting roles provide witty observations of different ways we might react to other person's fortune. Also, the acting is very good throughout the film. The main characters' lives have become unsatisfying and they are trying to deal with it in different ways. Even though it is a little frustrating to watch people who struggle to find anything meaningful to do or say, the script and the actors are able to draw a very accurate picture of everyday life as it sometimes can be. Here and there, they are able to provide a few laughs and even some satisfaction when the characters are developing, albeit slowly.

Overall, I'd end up recommending the film if you have enjoyed Alexander Payne's previous work.

Director Alexander Payne "Sideways" (2004) and "About Schmidt" (2002) deftly handles the road-movie plot structure once again with dark humor and satirical depictions of contemporary American society, yielding fantastic results yet again, as a heartfelt journey to examine his frail and flawed characters. Payne himself is a Nebraska native who felt strongly that the movie be filmed black and white to capture the mood of the old American heartland, and in order for the film to receive funding from Paramount, he had to settle for a smaller budget. As a result, Payne films and casts the movie in local communities with actual residents which provides a realistic texture to the family bonding tale. "Nebraska" is a humorous and heart-rendering story of family, but it also sheds a light onto the people of America's heartland, and our countries economic, moral, and cultural decline.

"Nebraska" starts as a road movie, with a father and son traveling from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska. David (Will Forte) has decided to indulge his father Woody (Bruce Dern), who is struggling with dementia and thinks that he can pick up his $1 million in winnings from a magazine distributor in Lincoln. En route, they stop for the weekend in Hawthorne, Dern's hometown, where they're joined by his wife (June Squibb), and his other son (Bob Odenkirk) amidst your stereotypical Midwestern relatives and friends, all of whom are extremely interested to learn that there's now a millionaire before them.

The central relationship between Dern's stubbornly gullible dad and Forte's passively irritated son gradually deepens as the movie makes its way through middle America. What makes the film such a delight to watch are the individuality of its characters. Each one is fun to watch in their own right; the father's relentless determination, the mother's humorous outbursts, and the son's sympathy and desire to bond with his father. "Nebraska" reaches an emotional conclusion that echoes of "About Schmidt" and "The Descendants" (2011) with an underlying sense of lives largely squandered, but handled with grace and finesse that feels innately genuine. "Nebraska" is another finely tuned, superior slice of cinema crafted by Alexander Payne who achieves a more mature, sentimental tone than previous films. The all-around marvelous performances from the cast and supporting non-professional actors add an unmistakable authenticity to this slice of Americana.

For those of us not from the Midwest, there is something strange about the place. Its people are taciturn but full of character; its landscape is wide, foreboding and sends the viewer into silence. "Nebraska" sits somewhere between "The Last Picture Show"; monochrome and a sad town full of back stories; and "Fargo", black humor, caricatures and illusions.

Nebraska has many wonderful moments and all of them come along without fanfare, building one on another; little piles of sand mounting to bring the whole piece in one. The structure of this movie is as near to ideal as it gets. It adds and adds layers and events and meaning to the relationships within a family and between a son and his rather hapless father.

The actors make this work so well. The comedy, the idiotic humor, the awkward silences and bitter stories out of the past are alive with humanity. The whole cast is superb. Dern's performance is almost like an old man from a Beckett play; white-haired and selfish, bitter and sad.

The photography and design really add texture. The geometry of the towns and house on the landscape; the broad emptiness of the country create a sense of place. Alexander Payne has made a film to watch again.

Alexander Payne is one director who marches to the beat of his own drummer - films in Nebraska, uses black and white, and casts some parts locally to get the correct flavor. He doesn't miss a note.

Nebraska is the story of a family of usual dysfunctionals living where else but Nebraska - a quiet, distant father with a little dementia, Woody (Bruce Dern), his two sons, David and Ross (Will Forte and Bob Odenkirk), and their perpetually complaining mother Kate (June Squibb). David sells home electronics and just broke up with his girlfriend; Ross works for a news station and recently replaced the "talent" up front.

The current major problem is that Woody has received something akin to a Publisher's Clearing House certificate telling him he's won a million dollars. All he has to do is buy these magazines and check if the numbers are his. All Woody sees is that he won a million dollars. No one will take him to Lincoln to claim his prize so he starts walking - more than once - until David says he will take him.

On the way, they stop by his parents' home town and drop in on Woody's brother and his family - a scary bunch. Kate takes a bus in and shows David around the cemetery in a scene you'll never forget, trust me. Woody runs into his old partner, Ed (Stacy Keach), and as word spreads that Woody is going to be a millionaire, everybody wants a piece of him, including Ed, who says Woody owes him quite a bit.

This is really a character-driven film, with some of the most vibrant, fleshed-out characters ever on screen and some of the starkest landscapes, filmed in black and white, and giving the viewer the feeling of what it's like to live among miles and miles of farmland interspersed with small towns.

Bruce Dern gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a lifelong alcoholic who has escaped inside himself, a man out of touch and seemingly untouched by any events around him. As the outspoken Kate, June Squibb is absolutely hilarious - always yelling at Woody, threatening to put him in a home, complaining about him, but just don't let anybody take advantage of him, or you'll have to deal with her.

The sons mirror their parents, with David quiet and thoughtful but trying to bond with his father, and Ross, more confident and less sympathetic.

In learning about his father's background, in talking with his old girlfriend (Angela McEwan) David begins to see the man that his father once was and what shaped him. And he finds out that love is sometimes an unspoken thing, but it's there all the same.

A wonderful film, powerful in its simplicity. Don't miss it.