Review: Nebraska

by Trevor Kirkendall
★★★★

Bruce Dern and Will Forte spend valuable father/son time
together throughout "Nebraska"

“Nebraska” centers around Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), an old alcoholic who doesn’t appear to have much of a functioning mind left anymore. He’s been wondering away from his home in Billings, MT everyday attempting to walk to Lincoln, NE to claim what he believes is a million dollar prize from one of those mail-in sweepstakes magazine promotions. What’s he need a million dollars for? For a new truck, of course. Just to have one. And an air compressor.

Obviously, he hasn’t won anything because everyone knows those promotions are scams. Woody’s wife Kate (June Squibb) is fed up with him and wants to stick him in a home. Their sons try to help when they can. Their oldest son Ross (Bob Odenkirk) works for the TV station so he can’t really help out around the house since he’s always at work. Their youngest son David (Will Forte) feels a little differently. He sees his father’s mind going and thinks he might as well let him have this one.

David decides he’s going to drive his father down to Lincoln anyway, even though he knows his dad has won nothing. They begin their journey, which gets a little side tracked when Woody stumbles into the hotel room one night after drinking and splits his head open on the dresser. They decide to take a detour to Hawthorne, NE where Woody and Kate are originally from. They see all sorts of old family and friends, including Woody’s old business partner Ed (Stacy Keach). Kate and Ross even join them for the weekend. Everyone is so excited for Woody’s good fortune, even though he really hasn’t come into any money. But that’s not something people want to hear.

Perfection is not a word anyone really likes to use when trying to describe something. Perfection indicates that a work is free of any error of flaw. Whether a movie is perfect of not is a matter of opinion. I never like to throw that word around when talking about a movie. And despite talking about perfection right now, I’m still not going to say “Nebraska” is perfect. I will, however, praise Alexander Payne for delivering perfection on many different levels in this film.

The casting in “Nebraska” is perfect. Bruce Dern is perfect. Dern more than delivers in this role and – yes, I will say it – is flawless in his delivery. Dern is already a sensational actor, but this will be the film he’s remembered for.  Will Forte, best known for his work on “Saturday Night Live,” is also spectacular. He’s maybe a little overshadowed in this film by Dern, but make no mistake, Forte more than holds his own. He’s more than just MacGruber and he proves it here. June Squibb has only a handful of scenes, but she steals almost all of them from her costars. Add in Bob Odenkirk and Payne has given us a very real and very believable family.

Payne’s handling of this story is perfect. This is the first film he’s made where he wasn’t directly involved in the screenwriting process. The script was written by Bob Nelson, who has crafted a very simplistic yet deeply moving story. His use of humor is also noteworthy. The film is absolutely hysterical at many different times, which works very well in contrast to the film’s more dramatic moments. And even though this isn’t a film scripted by Payne, it has all the typical trademarks that make his movies unique.

Nebraska's countryside has never looked more beautiful
in simplistic black-and-white

Payne’s decision to film “Nebraska” in black-and-white is also touch of brilliance. He reunites with his regular director of photography Phedon Papamichael and they’ve photographed the lonely and bare landscapes of Nebraska’s farmland with such poetic beauty utilizing only black-and-white. The simplistic nature of the story calls only for a simplistic use of color and contrast. Payne keeps everything simple in “Nebraska,” including the use of the music. Mark Orton, from an acoustic group called Tin Hat, provides the perfect score for this film with minimalist instrumentation. The folk/bluegrass sound matches well against the black-and-white landscape, which matches the story, which is perfectly executed by its cast. Top to bottom, “Nebraska” delivers on all aspects. This is Payne’s finest achievement in his career.

But where “Nebraska” really delivers is just how honest the story is. It’s more than a privilege to be a fly on a wall as we watch Woody and David reconnect. We don’t know a whole lot about their relationship in the immediate time leading up to the moment the film begins. They might see each other every couple of days or maybe they don’t see each other much at all. We’re never really told. Either way, Woody’s mind is beginning to leave him, and David might not have a whole lot of time left to spend with his father.

“Nebraska” explores this theme of the relationships between aging parents and their adult children. It’s a story that should resonate very well with anyone with senior parents. The time you have with them is limited and the time you spend, no matter what you’re doing, is valuable. Even if you’re just chasing down delusional fantasies, that time is something that shouldn’t be taken for granted. That’s the simple way to state the theme for this film, and it’s a perfect message for just about anybody.