Nebraska
3 Waffles!

I have this feeling everyone should see Nebraska in the same way I did, in a tiny little independent theater where you expect to find a patron eating an apple, and there is no sign of Thor or The Hunger Games in sight. The atmosphere adds to an appreciation for the movie, contributing the intimacy you need to best enjoy Nebraska (in their defense, the theater where I saw Nebraska didn’t have anyone eating apples, but the popcorn was yummy).

Bruce Dern stars as Woody – an elderly man suffering from years of alcoholism and declining faculties. After receiving a sweepstakes letter, Woody has become convinced he has won $1 Million, and might be able to fulfill some of his unmet dreams and desires in his twilight years. Of course, Woody won’t let anyone else see the letter, and no one else believes he has actually won $1 Million, so the elderly man sets off daily to walk from his home in Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to collect his winnings.

Finally, realizing this will not rectify itself without going to the sweepstakes headquarters, or watching Dad keel over on the side of the road, Woody’s son, David (Will Forte), agrees to drive his father to Nebraska. Along the way, the two attempt to reconnect and visit Dad’s old hometown to catch up with the relatives and friends from years past.

Nebraska is being hailed as some great Oscar contender, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s a good movie, but it made the kind of headlines as a festival darling that it can’t live up to when it reaches the general public.

It does have a quaint factor to it as director Alexander Payne has shot Nebraska in black and white to help contribute to the low cost, fly-on-the-wall feel of it all. If it wasn’t for the well known cast, one might mistake Nebraska for a student project at film school (in a good way), or some old French art film from music to scenery to content.

However, Payne and writer Bob Nelson let Nebraska veer into parody at times. The script helps examine one man’s look back at his life, troubles, and failures, but some of the surrounding characters are left to play comedy too often, and in a way that is too silly for us to take them seriously as real human beings. They come off as a bunch of Midwesterners acting crazy, uncouth and without grace as if they are animals in the zoo the rest of us “sophisticated” folks are supposed to be amused by.

Sure, Dern is great as the man who is struggling with lucidity and drunken confusion, which might also be the beginnings of Alzheimer’s or some similar malady. He makes us sense all of Woody’s frustration as he struggles to process the reality of the situation and how people around him are reacting with jealousy, conniving and outright mockery. Woody must suffer the slings and arrows while attempting to maintain some pride and dignity.

Dern always gives Woody this dual belief that it all is too good to be true, but it has to be true and real and this is his moment in the sun because he will never have another chance again. Even more difficult, Dern gives Woody a restrained emotional feel around everyone, even the son who is accompanying him on what could be his last trip to anywhere because this is a man who hasn’t been expressing his emotions throughout his lifetime, and possibly drinking them away more than not.

Forte, who is most known as a comedian and star of Saturday Night Live, is perfect as the son trying to do the right thing for his father even though Dad, as we learn throughout the movie, wasn’t exactly Father of the Year material. Much like Woody, Forte needs to make us feel David’s sadness at watching this lion of a man in his decline, but also his own confusion and mixed feelings about the relationship they have had over the years (not exactly MacGruber material).

You will hear plenty of Oscar talk about June Squibb, who plays Woody’s outspoken and feisty wife, Kate. She gives the stand out performance of Nebraska, but it is one that highlights the movies strengths and weaknesses. Squibb gets all of the greatest lines and laughs, but she becomes cartoonish at times.

Nebraska is interesting, but not the massive revelation some would like to make it out to be.

Nebraska is rated R for some language.