December 4, 2013
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Bruce Dern stars in the new film "Nebraska ' playing ‘Woody’ a cantankerous old man who suddenly springs forth a fearsome d e te rm ^ n a h o n ^ life ^ PARAMOUNT P ,c tu rrs
Nebraska’ uncovers a father and son’s humanity
O pinionated
J udge
I couldn't help thinking after watching
Alexander Payne's new film "Nebraska" of
how different its picture of America is from
the one that is peddled to us (and to people
around the world) in most American films
and television. In that more typical Holly­
wood depiction, everyone (except the odd
villain or comic relief) is improbably good-
looking, their houses are improbably well-
appointed and clean, their conversations are
improbably expressive, and their problems
are readily diagnosed and handily solved.
Humorous films about less sparkly people
in J i ix ; e
I ) \ ki i i \ O k i ix, \
are not common and usually display an
overtly self-conscious, mocking tone (think
"Napoleon Dynamite").
"Nebraska" is the antithesis of those films-
-and, it strikes me, presents an admirably
truthful, if rueful, depiction of a significant
segment of American culture. It is shot in
expansive black and white in an America of
open, bleak spaces (Montana, Wyoming,
South Dakota, Nebraska), and feels so deeply
sunk into those spaces that its setting rises
to the level of a character, as in a Coen
brothers' film. Its characters look like actual
people you might m eet-their clothes and invites you to look long and listen deeply,
skin are weathered and frayed, and you can and finds beauty and humanity there.
see the toll of work and disappointment and
Much of the credit goes to Bruce Dem's
resolution. They also talk like people you career-capping performance as Woody, a
might m eet-w hich is to say that often what taciturn old goat who clearly hasn't shown
is said isn't particularly insightful or even an interest in much of anything except alco­
interesting and what's really going on might hol and old grievances for as long as anyone
as easily be found by listening for what isn't can remember. Woody has sprung a fear­
said.
some determination to travel from his home
What I loved most is that director Payne in Billings, Mont, to Lincoln, Neb. to collect
and screenwriter Bob Nelson don't conde­ the million dollars promised to him by a junk
scend to these folks. Small-mindedness and mail scam, even if it means he has to walk
even meanness are often in evidence, and there. His wife Kate (who has clearly been
the film is rich with humor but it doesn’t make nursing her exasperation with him for several
fun. Most everyone is more or less doing decades) calls their sons to complain and to
what they can, and you can see the remnants retrieve Woody when he wanders off toward
of a culture built on the dreams of a post- Lincoln. One senses she wants them to hear
World War II economy that has not quite her dub him a "dumb cluck" who, if he wanted
panned out; indeed, much of it has disinte­
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grated. This film sinks into the bleakness,