Nebraska is one of
those films that are both moving and effective satire. This is rare in the movie industry. Usually the satire in films doesn’t work
because the films contain nothing we can identify with. And usually we don’t see anything that is heartfelt
because movies are populated with people we can’t possibly admire or care
about.
Having said that, Nebraska
owes the success it has had to the two characters that are played by Bruce
Dern and June Squibb. Dern plays Woody Grant, the troubled old man
who decides to travel from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to pick up
the million dollars he is told that he has won in a sweepstakes. Squibb plays his wife, Kate Grant, a foul
mouthed elderly woman who has put up with her husband for many years.
From what we learn about Woody, he’s been a hard drinking
auto mechanic in his youth who has not been too good at holding onto his money
and has been a bit less than ideal husband and father. However, he’s sometimes been too generous
with a number of his relatives and friends including his former business
partner, Ed Pegram (Stacy Keach).
Though his wife and sons attempt to tell him that there is
no million dollars to be provided in Lincoln, Woody is determined to make the
trip even if it means walking there.
Finally the youngest son, David (Will Forte), decides to take a few days
off from his dead-end job and accompany Woody on the trip. This makes Kate all the more furious. After a few mishaps, Woody and David make
their way to Lincoln by first taking a detour through Woody’s hometown – a fictional
small town called Hawthorne, Nebraska.
Woody temporarily meets up with his relatives (most of whom lead empty
lives) as Kate and the other son, Ross (Bob Odenkirk) come to join them. Here we learn about Woody’s life in the
military, the acquaintances he grew up with and even a past love named, Peg (Angela
McEwan). (As an aside, her small role is
excellently acted and plays a surprisingly important part in telling Woody’s
story - as she’s one of the few remaining Hawthorne residents who really cared
for Woody as he was and is.)
While many in the town celebrate Woody’s supposed success in
winning a million dollars, the primary motivation for relatives and his former
business partner is to get paid back money for some imagined debt. They quickly scorn Woody when they discover
that he really didn’t win. Nevertheless,
David and Woody do make it to Billings where Woody discovers the actual truth
about the sweepstakes. David, not
wishing to leave the matter as it stood, finances a pickup for Woody so that he
can take one last drive through Hawthorne and show that he was a success.
The film was 115 minutes and directed by Alexander
Payne. Payne directed About Schmidt, a film as equally moving
as Nebraska, and Sideways, a pretentious film that typifies much of what we see from
Hollywood. Nebraska succeeds because of the acting of husband and wife, good
storytelling (there’s a great deal of understatement in this film), both light and
dark humor and because the black and white cinematography helps us visualize
how devastating life can be for large numbers of people. Woody’s relatives seem to have nothing better
than to sit around and watch television or else watch the traffic drive
by. Woody has in many respects never
been given a break. He is desperate for
the million dollars because he feels he otherwise has nothing more to leave for
his sons. Nebraska depicts Woody’s wife and sons growing through the process
of the film. In some manner we even see
such growth from Woody – a character who is often unable to articulate his own
feelings.
The film is not perfect.
While cynicism is minimal, it sometimes does drift in. Also, I felt the movie would have been better
off without the depiction of two derelict cousins who by some miracle are on
home-release and not sitting in jail.
And though the characterizations of the two sons would be more than
adequate in most films, they are vastly overshadowed in this movie by the
father and mother characters.
Still, as humble as a $13 million budget can possibly be in any
undertaking, Nebraska seems genuine and
thoughtful. Payne did not make this film
to be self-congratulatory which is unsurprisingly why it was passed up for any
Oscars. Hollywood needs more movies like
this one just as it has needed so many low-budget but quality movies in the
past.
March 22, 2014
© Robert S. Miller 2014
