Nebraska (2013) * * *

 

Directed by:  Alexander Payne

Starring:  Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach

Alexander Payne's Nebraska is a quiet comedy about a retire, senile alchoholic named Woody (Dern), who believes he won a million-dollar sweepstakes prize and is willing to walk from his home in Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim it.  His son David (Forte) sees him walking along the highway and decides to drive him to Lincoln, with stops along the way.  David knows this is a fool's errand, but goes along with his dad's journey and finds he knows more about him at the end of the trek than at the beginning.

Nebraska, filmed in black and white, follows Payne's previous films which display subtle humor and engrossing characters who aren't easy to nail down.  There are no villains, just very flawed human beings whose motives we can understand even if we don't agree with them.  Woody keeps to himself and words trickle from his lips like there aren't many more where that came from.  His economy of words means that when he says something, he means it.  A funny scene involves a stop at Mount Rushmore and Woody is subsequently unimpressed.  ("Lincoln doesn't even have an ear").

It's fitting that his wife Kate (Squibb) is a firecracker who says what's on her mind, even being ribald, saucy, and oversharing most of the time.  She and Woody are temperamental opposites.  However, with Woody, David, and Kate, we sense their decency and humanity.  A jerk from Woody's past (Keach) is really the only fly in the ointment in Nebraska, because he wants to take advantage after learning Woody may suddenly be rich.  Does Woody even believe it himself that he has won a million dollars?  Or is he just looking for purpose and some kind of legacy for his children?  Nebraska isn't cheerfully folksy nor is it satirizing its Midwestern characters.  Some parts move slowly, unlike Payne's Election which also takes place in Nebraska and moves along with energy and pessimism about the human condition, but after spending two hours with these people, we're glad we had a chance to meet them.