“Nebraska”

Rated R for some language

Every year, the film award shows include a movie that is “obscure.” The film nearly everybody talks about but hardly anyone actually sees. It has at least one or two quirky elements, which distinguishes it from the other nominations. And yet, when it gets noticed, when it wins an award or three, the film gets placed on the “download” list or perhaps when the book club needs a special night-out event experiencing the cinematic arts.

Nebraska is just this kind of movie. There are several reasons why we can file this movie under “quirky” but the two that come to mind immediately are: it is filmed in black and white and it stars Bruce Dern. It is Dern’s performance that is getting attention, otherwise this film would have gone from studio to “slumming films for the hoity-toity.” (Bruce Dern won Best Actor for “Nebraska” at the Cannes Film Festival.)

Mr. Dern plays Woody Grant, a Billings, Montana man whose alcoholism has turned his brain to something between tapioca pudding and Styrofoam. When he receives a mass-printed notice from a magazine-selling company, he is certain that he won the $1 million prize. His harpy wife won’t take him to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim it. (Apparently he has had his license taken away due to his drinking.) His wife and both of his sons know it is just a come-on but he will have none of it and takes off on foot to walk from Billings to Lincoln, which is a distance of 850 miles. He is stopped by the police or his youngest son, David (Will Forte), again and again. Woody is stubbornly insistent.

David eventually decides to take some time off from work to make the journey, primarily to make his father realize it is a fool’s quest and also to spend some time with him since he and his brother never got to know him much since Woody spent most of his time drunk and distant.

These odyssey genre movies are always the same: the journey is the serendipitous reward, not the actual arrival at the destination. Now, please do not infer from my use of the word “serendipitous” that all is joy and enlightenment and father and son become the best of pals … because, in fact, along the way the family reunites and meets more family…which makes this kind of a family movie — but not in the slightest way does this movie possess even a hint of Pixar, Walt Disney, or Hallmark. The use of black and white film is more about grayness, a metaphoric shade of gray.

My commentating consort started her Gregorian chant as soon as we cleared the doorway — “that was depressing — that was depressing — that was depressing.”  Actually, she is wrong. This film shows the sad, mundane ravages of drink and misspent lives but it also shows that family, however tattered, still has a bond that can resist perfectly good reasons to disintegrate. Nebraska is the other side of the family coin to August: Osage County … as long as we agree the coin in question is battered, tarnished, and dingy.

Bruce Dern is the heart and soul of this film, no doubt about it. This is the performance of his career and it is haunting — so much so that I pity anyone ever playing a similar character; it will pale in comparison. His uncertain gait, his apparent alcoholic disorientation, and his single-minded insistence on a fruitless goal are far more than spot-on.  I was totally convinced that Bruce Dern was just playing Bruce Dern.  When, as Woody Grant, falls off the wagon, for example, I was certain Dern had “researched” that bit personally but apparently not because he does not drink alcohol or coffee nor does he smoke (except when his character does so on screen). I can’t say Bruce Dern was on my list of brilliant performers, but Nebraska has given me pause to reconsider.

The movie Nebraska is not really depressing. Perhaps it is on the surface, but it has a lot of laughs—mostly at the expense of family gatherings which is clearly a mirror of our own families whether we want to admit it or not. It is bittersweet with perhaps a tad more sweetness than bitterness. In fact, below the surface of sadness and regret, there is more than a little familial humanity. You just have to look through the quirky black and white metaphor. It is a simple story told in a subtle manner…depicted as an optical illusion. You think you see one thing, but if you stare at it long enough another image becomes very apparent. The image is really gratifying; it is worth the effort of staring past the shades of black and white to see the complex hues of familial compassion.

“Nebraska” earns four and a half bow ties out of five.