Alexander Payne’s stunning filmography captures the hilarious as well as evoking the humane. His subversive skills are on display in the poetic and contemplative Nebraska. The director shot his dramedy in black and white and his father-son tale is a sea of washed out greys that reduces the film to its plainest, most bare emotions. The result is a strikingly unadorned and timeless portrait of familial relationships.
Bruce Dern contributes a stunning performance as dementia-addled Woody, his bouts of dizziness and forgetfulness offset by an unending series of obsessions. His latest is a piece of sweepstakes junk mail declaring him the winner of a million dollars. To humour him, son David (SNL’s Will Forte, beautifully understated) agrees to drive him to Nebraska to claim his “prize.”
Travelling through bland scenery in ugly cars, the men’s groundless odyssey becomes a journey through Woody’s life, as detours lead him back to his hometown. As stark confessions and throw-away revelations reveal just how much of Woody’s life was dictated by passive resignation – his marriage, his job – the nature of truth is explored: the factors that contributed to young Woody believing that he didn’t have better options; his dementia-affected but unshakeable belief system now; the innocence-shattering truths that children must learn about their parents; and the deluded entitlement that blinds Woody’s extended family.
Long roads and pit-stops symbolise the small, seemingly aimless journeys that ultimately make up a life. Payne explores time, memory, truth and family – with endless pathos and humour. Moments of madcap comedy and seemingly cartoonish characters are balanced by Payne’s deep, humanist affection for real people and their flaws. The cast of Midwesterners is made up of wonderfully real looking people: their faces lined, their humour crass, and their ordinary lives extraordinarily moving.