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| Forte and Dern are cold in Nebraska. |
««« Nebraska. Written by Bob Nelson. Directed by Alexander Payne. At selected theaters.
Sixteen years ago the
Coen Brothers made Fargo, an
off-beat, serio-comic thriller set in you-know-where, North Dakota. Though
Hollywood elites loved it, awarding it Oscars for Best Picture and Best
Actress, it drew criticism for how it portrayed the good folks of the upper
Midwest. Namely, it made them into cartoony, hapless rubes. Settling in to
Alexander Payne's Nebraska, I got the
feeling I was in for something similar—that is, for Fargo-style regional caricature, albeit without the Coen's wit.
The
script by newcomer Bob Nelson concerns Woody Grant (Bruce Dern), an ornery,
tactiturn 70 year-old who believes he's come into a million dollars when a sham
magazine sweepstakes offer comes in the mail. No longer permitted to drive, he
sets off on foot from his home in Billings to collect his "fortune"
in Lincoln, Nebraska. He's rescued from the side of the interstate by his
youngest son, David (Will Forte). After Woody's third or fourth escape attempt,
the latter decides to drive him there, figuring at least he can spend some
quality alone time with his dad.
David
gets more than he bargained for when they stop in Woody's old home town. The
story of his imminent fortune gets around quickly, making Woody a local hero
among his distant family and childhood buddies. Things go sour when the
inevitable demands for payback on old "loans" start coming, and
David, like many adult children, learns how broad an undiscovered country his
parent's life is to him.
Payne,
by using the title Nebraska, is promising
to deliver something folksy, gritty, unvarnished—in other words, the cinematic
equivalent of Bruce Springsteen's sound in the classic album of the same name.
Phedon Papamichael's sparse black and white cinematography befits those
expectations. Yet (and notwithstanding Payne's own Midwestern roots) there's a
whiff of bicoastal condescension in how the film presents people and places
hollowed out by economic irrelevance. The old folks here behave exactly as
every urban hipster expects on a visit with his flyover grandparents—conversations
conducted in monosyllables, the idiot cousins left behind (Tim Discoll and
Devin Ratray), the old men dozing in front of football games as Grandma bastes
the turkey in the kitchen. Were Nebraska presented with the smells
appropriate to its story, we would get the odors of moth-balls and soiled
Depends. If people really lived in a state of such hopelessness, walking seven
hundred miles to get a million bucks doesn't sound so crazy after all.
But
then something surprising happens. First, June Squibb turns in a feisty,
appealing performance as Woody's long-suffering spouse. Second, and more profoundly,
Payne slowly erects a touching father-son story on Will Forte's boyish
ingenuousness. While Woody is a constant disappointment, Forte portrays
David's need to build a relationship with him with such sweet subtlety that he
redeems the whole film, clichés and all. Forte's performance is all the more
impressive that he was a SNL cast member for ten years, but Payne never lets
him be funny.
Bruce
Dern's acerbic, unsentimental performance is getting the lion's share of praise
for this film, but don't be fooled. It comes off as under-realized because it
is a character actor's performance in a lead role. So how exactly is Woody, a
coarse, cynical man who seems to value nothing but booze, supposed to be fooled
by a obviously bogus sweepstakes offer? Word is that Bryan Cranston was up for
the role of Woody, but Payne chose Dern instead. He's fine, but it's frightening
to think how good Nebraska could have
been with a truly commanding actor like Cranston in the lead.
Even on its own, quieter
terms, this film is not as successful
as Payne's Sideways, which was more
touching and, incidentally, hilarious. But it does fashion something true out
of what seems like unpromising material. For those willing to risk dozing off
in their armchairs, Nebraska ends up
a fine place to go.
@ 2013 Nicholas Nicastro
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